Special Correspondent :
AFTER a major scam suspectedly running into several hundred crore rupees surfaced at the Nagpur-based prestigious
National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI)
under the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR),
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered three separate
cases of corruption and criminal conspiracy against its former
director Dr Rakesh Kumar, Chief Scientists Dr Atya Kapley and
Dr Sanjeev Kumar Goyal (Delhi), Principal Scientist Dr Ritesh
Vijay and Senior Scientist Dr Sunil Gulia, on Wednesday.
CBI also booked the directors of five firms on allegations of
corruption in tendering and procurement. These firms include
M/s Alaknanda Technologies Pvt Ltd, Airoli, Navi Mumbai, M/s
Enviro Policy Research India Pvt Ltd, Gokhale Road, Thane,
M/s Emergy Enviro Pvt Ltd, Powai, Mumbai, M/sWaste to Energy
Research & Technology Council-India (W TERT-India),
Prabhadevi, Mumbai, M/s ESS Environment Consultants Pvt
Ltd (EECPL) and M/s Alaknanda Technologies Pvt Ltd (ATPL).
Soon after registering the three FIRs, CBI conducted searches at 17 locations in Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar and Delhi. In Nagpur, the bureau officers conducted searches at
the NEERI office and residential premises of Dr Atya
Kapley and Dr Ritesh Vijay.
This led to recovery of several incriminating documents, property related documents, jewellery and other
valuables.
According to CBI officials,
the first case was registered
against former director Dr
Rakesh Kumar and Dr Atya
Kapley and three private
firms.
It was alleged that Dr
Rakesh Kumar and Dr Kapley
entered into criminal conspiracy with accused private
companies allowing
cartelization and collusive
bidding, splitting of tenders/works, not obtaining
financial concurrence of
competent authority, in lieu
of undue advantage. All the
three accused private companies participated in tenders issued by CSIR-NEERI
and said Navi Mumbai based
private firm was awarded
work in most of the tenders.
It was further alleged that
one of the directors of the
accused Navi Mumbai based
private firm is the wife of a
contractual staff member
who has been a long standing associate of Dr Rakesh
Kumar. The second case was registered against Dr Rakesh
Kumar and Dr Ritesh Vijay
and a private firm based at
Prabhadevi- Mumbai on the
allegations that the accused
public servants in criminal
conspiracy with said accused
private firm abused their official positions for obtaining
undue advantage during the
period 2018-2019. It was
alleged that during the year
2018-19, a joint proposal of
CSIR- NEERI and the accused
private firm for submission
to Thane Municipal
Corporation for providing
advisory service for closure
of dumping site at DivaKhardi at a cost of Rs.19.75
lakhs was approved by the
said Director alongwith
accused then Principal
Scientist.The selection of the
accused private firm was
allegedly done arbitrarily on
nomination basis, without
consultation of the financial
advisor of the CSIR. It was
further alleged that before
assuming charge of Director
of CSIR-NEERI, the said
accused was associated with
the accused private firm during the year 2015-16 and was
a member of its organising
committee and a Trustee.
Similarly, the third FIR was
registered against Dr Sunil
Gulia, Scientist Fellow of
Delhi Zonal Centre, NEERI,
and Dr Sanjeev Kumar Goyal
and two private firms. It was
alleged that both the public
servants in criminal conspiracy with said accused private companies abused their
official position for obtaining undue advantage from
these private companies and
committed gross irregularities in procurement, fabrication, supply, installation
and commissioning of
WAYU-II devices.
It was also
alleged that WAYU-II, a
patented & proprietary property of NEERI, was exclusively licensed to another
accused firm and each time
efforts were made to procure
the devices from said firm on
a single bid basis.
Further, indent was
allegedly raised on a single
tender basis by inserting a
restrictive clause of exclusive licensee of NEERI’s own
technology without ascertaining the validity of license
agreement executed with the
said accused firm. It was also
alleged that the licence
elapsed before the end of the
bidding process, and hence
the executive licensee clause,
which was the basis for single tender, made the bidding
process void ab-initio.
Moreover, five WAYU-II
devices were allegedly also
procured from Navi
Mumbai-based accused
private firm raising questions
as how could said Navi
Mumbai based private firm
manufacture the device,
which had been exclusively
licensed to another accused
firm. Despite NEERI being
the proprietor/patent holder, the act of procuring back
products of its own technology on a single tender basis
was allegedly in violation of
GFR rules.