LACCFED engineers withdrew Rs 45 cr from banks without specifying purpose

Already,the SIB has arrested Badshah Singh,who was labour minister in the previous Mayawati government,for taking a bribe of Rs 5 lakh for alloting a project of making labour shelters across the state. The project was never allotted and Singh never returned the money. Nine other former ministers are also under investigation.

An SIB official said the money was withdrawn from Punjab National Bank’s Lalbagh branch in Lucknow through bearer cheques. In some cases,unspecified “construction work” is shown as the purpose,but in most cases there is nothing on record to show why the money was needed,said the investigators.

The cheques were issued in the name of 16 engineers. All cheques carried the signatures of then chief engineer Govind Sharan Srivastava and accountant Anil Agrawal,both of whom have been arrested. The amount released through cheques were in lakhs and the maximum amount on a cheque was Rs 65 lakh,sources said.

P N Singh Yadav,General Manager for Administration and Finance,said any two of Srivastava,Agrawal and ex-GM Pankaj Tripathi could sign cheques,but Tripathi signed very few cheques and these were all related to specific projects.

Investigation has shown that Rs 5 crore paid to Badshah Singh,and another questionable payment of Rs 3 crore meant for another minister,was withdrawn through cheques issued in the name of engineers. Yadav said that payment made to engineers through bearers cheques was a common practice. The LACCFED does not invite tenders,and the work is allotted directly to an engineer who also get the payment for its execution. Officials took advantage of this practice,he said.

Some of the engineers who were issued cheques have been arrested. They include superintending engineer Ajay Kumar Dohre and executive engineers DK Sahu and Sanjay Kumar Vaishya.

Officials are probing the role of others,including executive engineers SK Ojha,Onkar Singh,Neeraj Khare,Sandeep Kumar,SB Singh,PK Bajpai,Pranay Kumar Tripathi and assistant engineer Awadhesh Kumar.

Sources said the Enforcement Directorate is helping SIB in identifying assets which were purchased with the unaccounted money collected by ex-LACCFED chairman Sushil Katiyar and other officials. Katiyar,who is wanted in the case,is absconding.