2007-14, Rajendra Kumar favoured firm with many govt contracts, alleges CBI

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“We have evidence of Kumar’s alleged association with the directors of the company which was the beneficiary of contracts he awarded,” said a CBI officer without providing further details.

On Tuesday, the CBI searched 14 locations in Delhi-NCR after registering a case of corruption against Kumar and six others for awarding the contracts. CBI sources said that the agency interrogated Kumar at its headquarters on Tuesday evening, and recovered from his residence Rs 2.3 lakh in cash and Rs 3 lakh in foreign currency, apart from documents related to three properties.

According to Registrar of Companies (RoC) records, Endeavour Systems was incorporated in 2006 with four directors Yogendra Dahiya, Vikas Kumar, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta. Dahiya and Vikas Kumar later resigned from the company leaving Sandeep Kumar and Gupta with 80 per cent and 20 per cent of shares respectively, according to RoC filings.

Gupta is also the sole proprietor of Laxmi Enterprises, with RoC records listing its email ID as laxmi_printer@yahoo.com.

The corruption case was registered based on a complaint from former Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) member Ashish Joshi to the Delhi Police Anti-Corruption bureau (ACB) earlier this year. The complaint was forwarded to CBI in July following which the agency registered an FIR after a five-month-long probe, the CBI said.

Joshi was removed from the commission after he had a spat with its vice-chairman Ashish Khaitan.

The CBI has invoked charges of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and of criminal misconduct by a public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Rajendra Kumar and six others, including Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar.

The other accused include former and current MDs of ICSIL, A K Duggal, G K Nanda and R S Kaushik. It was through ICSIL that many contracts were allegedly awarded to Endeavour, said CBI sources. Endeavour Systems has also been named as an accused firm in the FIR.

According to CBI, Kumar, while working for the Delhi government, “promoted” Endeavour Systems in 2006. “When Kumar was director the in school education department, he had links with the current directors of Endeavour,” claimed a CBI officer.

According to CBI, the five contracts allegedly awarded to Endeavour Systems when Kumar was holding various posts in the Delhi government include:

* 2009: According to CBI, when Kumar was chairman of Delhi Transco Ltd, he allegedly facilitated the award of a Rs 40.16-lakh project for the development of a comprehensive management system to Endeavour Systems without any tendering process.

* 2010: As Secretary, Health in the Delhi government, Kumar allegedly facilitated the award of a manpower project worth Rs 2.43 crore to Endeavour, claimed CBI sources. This was allegedly routed through ICSIL without any tendering process, said sources.

* 2012: As commissioner, trade and taxes, Kumar allegedly helped Endeavour bag a contract worth Rs 3.66 crore for development of software applications for his department, CBI claimed. This was again routed through ICSIL, claimed sources.

* 2013: As secretary, information and technology, Kumar allegedly helped Endeavour get a contract worth Rs 45.5 lakh for a facility management system for the trade and taxes department without following any tender process, claimed CBI sources.

* 2014: In February last year, as secretary to the Chief Minister, Kumar allegedly facilitated the award of a Rs 2.45-crore Delhi Jal Board contract for enterprise resource planning to ICSIL, said CBI sources. ICSIL allegedly “sublet” the project to Endeavour in June 2014, by which time Kejriwal had resigned, they said.

CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said, “The CBI has registered a case against a senior civil servant with the Delhi government on the allegation of abusing his official position by favouring a particular firm between 2007 and 2014 in getting tenders from various Delhi government departments. After obtaining warrants, searches were conducted at 14 locations which included the office and residence of the civil servant and six other accused.”

The spokesperson denied that searches were conducted at the Chief Minister’s office and said,”False propaganda should not be used to to impede our investigations.”

In his complaint to the Delhi ACB in June, Joshi had alleged that Endeavour Systems got orders through ICSIL when Rajendra Kumar was Secretary (IT), CMD (Transco), Secretary (Health) and Commissioner (VAT).

Joshi also alleged that “a chain of such companies were formed between 2009 and 2014 in the field of energy, real estate, coaching, etc… a host of these companies have common addresses and common directors. It is learnt that some common directors are relatives of Rajendra Kumar.”

(With inputs from Mahendra Kumar Manral)