JAMMU, May 22 (KNO) : Vigilance Organization, Jammu today presented the challan against Vinod Koul, then Project Manager, Export Oriented Handloom Development Corporation Project,Samba, Daleep Kumar Thaploo, I/c Processing EOHDP, Raj Kumar Padha, then Accountant EOHDP, Madan Lal then Storekeeper and Raman Pargal, Prop. M/s Laxmi General Store, Samba in the court of Special Judge, Anti-Corruption, Jammu for judicial determination.
An enquiry was conducted by the Vigilance Organization into the irregularities of auctioning of scrap by Handloom Development Corporation Project, Samba wherein it surfaced that tenders were called by the accused for the auction of the scrap on “as is where is basis” which was lying in the premises of Export Oriented Handloom Development Corporation Project, Samba (EOHDP) and thereafter, on opening the tenders, tenders of two bidders were rejected on the ground that they had quoted the rates for the lots of scrap.
However, the accused decided to auction the scrap by weight and not through lots and as such rates quoted by Gandhi Seva Sadan were taken into account and average rate of three lots was calculated @ Rs. 13/- Kg. Thereafter, as one of the bidders M/s Laxmi General Store had quoted rates @ 5% of the rate above all other parties, so 5% of the rate was added and selling rate was calculated as Rs. 13.65 per Kg and accordingly M/s Laxmi General Store was asked to lift the scrap, who lifted a total of 11,850/- Kg scrap for an amount of Rs. 1,61,616/-, which the corporation earned. Whereas, it was found that M/s Sunil Iron had quoted Rs. 2,81,000/- per lot and there were three lots of scrap available on the spot, as in case he was allotted the contract an amount of Rs. 8,43,000/- could have been fetched by the Corporation but the accused, by allotting the contract to M/s Laxmi General Store, Samba in sheer abuse of the official position and in connivance with the beneficiary had caused loss to the tune of Rs. 7,23,534/- to the corporation.
As the aforesaid commissions/omissions on the part of accused persons, prima facie, disclosed commission of offences punishable u/s 5(1) (d) r/w 5(2) J&K PC Act 2006 BK and 120-B RPC, accordingly, case FIR No. 22/2014 was registered at P/S VOJ and investigation was taken up. During the course of investigation, it was established that the accused persons by abuse of their official position and in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy with each other for giving pecuniary benefits to the beneficiary Raman Pargal Proprietor M/S Laxmi General Store Samba, have caused loss to the tune of Rs. 1,34,379/- to the exchequer of the Corporation. As such, offences punishable u/s 5(1) (d) r/w Sec. 5(2) J&K P.C Act Svt. 2006 and section 120-B RPC were substantiated against the accused persons and after obtaining the necessary sanction from the competent authority for launching prosecution against the accused public servants, the challan was presented before the court.