CBI tells Govt to shunt out top NHAI officer after Ministry rejects probe

Sources have confirmed to The Indian Express that the CBI,after seeking legal advice,has now written to Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar asking him to transfer out S I Patel,an Additional Secretary-level officer who is now posted as Member (Projects) in the NHAI.

The Cabinet Secretary is understood to have scheduled a review meeting with CBI officials later this week.

The case in question is a controversial award of contract in the 120-km Nagpur-Betul Highway (NH 69) to a Delhi-based private firm,Oriental Structural Engineers Pvt Ltd (OSEPL). The contract value,over an 18-year period,is Rs 10,800 crore,and the CBI has alleged several irregularities in the manner in which it was awarded.

It was in May this year that the CBI registered a case after it received complaints from among the 12 other bidders and put telephones of NHAI and OSEPL under surveillance. Cash totalling Rs 1.86 crore was recovered by the CBI from NHAI officials during searches.

The CBI called it a case of criminal conspiracy and corruption in which while awarding a contract,the NHAI had tried to “eliminate all possible contenders on one pretext or another and favoured the accused company ensuring huge financial gain to it.”

Those arrested were a Chief General Manager and General Manager of the NHAI and two top OSEPL bosses,including its managing director. An analysis of the evidence — including telephone transcrips of conversations between the two camps and emails exchanged between NHAI and OSEPL officials — led the CBI to seek sanction to investigate Member (Projects) Patel too.

Significantly,Patel was able to stay out of the country — he sought several extensions of his leave — all throughout the 60-day remand period of the arrested officials and returned to NHAI only after they secured bail since the CBI failed to file a chargesheet.

The CBI version is that Patel’s evidence is vital to link pieces of evidence in the case and,therefore,its urgent reminders for immediate grant of sanction.

When contacted today,NHAI chairman Brajeshwar Singh told The Indian Express that he wasn’t aware of the final outcome of the CBI’s request for sanction since it was being handled by the Ministry.

“The Ministry had asked us for comments and we gave them what was on our files. I am not aware of the nature of evidence with the CBI since they are not expected to share it with us,” he said. “Yes,the CBI recovered huge sums of money from two NHAI officials but again I am not aware if they were able to establish a nexus between the officers and the contract.”

Despite senior NHAI officials being arrested and OSEPL being made the “accused” private beneficiary,the NHAI went ahead and signed the concessional agreement — the final contractual procedure — with the same company. This was done in end August,three months after the arrests and searches. When asked about this,NHAI chief Singh said: “Technically,the contract was awarded before the CBI action. Nobody,including the CBI,had asked us to cancel the concessional agreement. Its signing was a mere formality.”