Mumbai: In the alleged corruption case involving the officials of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), Nagpur, the CBI is probing the role of suspected shell companies.
Allegations Made By Vigilance Department
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The vigilance department of CSIR has alleged that Dr. Rakesh Kumar, as director of CSIR-NEERI, with former senior principal scientist Dr. Atya Kapley, allowed the splitting of a single work order into multiple works to avoid obtaining the sanction of higher authorities.
The case was registered by the CBI on a complaint by Roop Kishor, CSIR’s chief vigilance officer. Kishor, in his complaint to the CBI, stated that a work relating in-situ nullah treatment of six drains of Prayagraj was received from the Government of Uttar Pradesh under the National Mission for Clean Ganga in 2018.
About The Split
The work project, costing nearly Rs 7.35 crore was allegedly allowed to split into work for three drains, two drains, and one drain. However, both the private firms involved – M/s ATPL and M/s EPRI Pvt Ltd – submitted bids, indicating cartelisation and collusive bidding.
The chief vigilance officer also claimed that M/s ATPL and M/s EPRI Pvt Ltd have repeatedly participated in the bidding process of NEERI and the institute suspects that these two firms could be the shell companies involved.
As per his complaint, the act of splitting allowed Dr Kumar to prevent lending the proposal to CSIR headquarters for approval of the Director-General, which is needed for works costing more than Rs 2.5 crore.
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