Days after the Anti-Corruption Branch in Delhi arrested three persons for allegedly embezzling Rs 20 crore from Delhi Jal Board (DJB) funds, the enforcement agency questioned DJB Joint director Naresh Singh and subsequently arrested him in connection with the case. The three accused — Raju Nair (56), Gopi Kumar Kedia (52) and Dr Abhilash Vasukuttan Pillai — are senior officials at an IT company which was awarded the contract for setting up automotive bill payment collection machines at different DJB offices. Last week, ACB officials said the accused, in connivance with DJB officials, allegedly kept collecting money till 2020 despite the contract ending in 2019. Police said Nair has an Indian passport and is a resident of Moscow, Russia. JCP (ACB) Madhur Verma said that Singh, 48, was arrested for allegedly receiving a bribe from Directors of Aurrum and Fresh Pay, the accused companies. Elaborating on the grounds of arrest, Verma said that from 2015, when the contract was extended for the first time, every year he allegedly helped Fresh Pay in extending the contract of collection of bill payment from e-kiosks year after year, till 2020. “He allegedly kept silent over reconciliation of water bills while getting the extension done for the Fresh Pay company,” the officer said. Reacting to the arrest, the Delhi government in a statement said: “This scheme was brought in by the previous Congress government much before AAP came to power. The contract was given to a central government bank, namely Corporation Bank, to collect bills for water. The bank in turn outsourced it to a private company and they in turn cheated DJB. Any officer found guilty of connivance with the bank should be punished.”
