13 PHE Dept officials among 17 booked for embezzlement in Narnaul city

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, December 18

A case of embezzlement of Rs 1.5 crore with regard to the repair of old pipelines for potable water and cleanliness of pump houses in Narnaul city has come to light.

About the case

• The PHE’s executive engineer was authorised to buy materials up to Rs 50,000 at his level through tendering in special conditions
• The official records, however, revealed that items worth Rs 2.28 crore were bought from contractors

Seventeen persons, including three sub-divisional engineers (SDEs) and 10 junior engineers (JEs), of the Public Health and Engineering (PHE) Department have been booked on charges of making payment of fake bills on the complaint of a sub-inspector (SI) engaged with the CM Flying squad in this respect.

Those booked include SDEs Mukesh Kumar, Rampal and Amit Jain, JEs Nitin, Priyavir, Narendra Pal Ranga, Rajeev, Rohit, Sanjeev, Praveen Kumar, Ekta, Anil, Ajit Kumar and contractors Harminder, Pankaj Sharma, Dheeraj Sharma and Rajkumar Enterprises.

Sources said the CM Flying squad Rewari had received a complaint which alleged that public money to the tune of crores had been embezzled by the PHE officials on the basis of fake first and final bills in connivance with the contractors for the work of repairing old pipelines, motors, starters, cables and cleanliness of pump-houses in Narnaul.

Acting on the complaint, the CM flying squad initiated inquiry into the matter by questioning all officials, contractors and others associated with the case, besides examining office records, bills and other documents pertaining to it.

During inquiry, it was found that the PHE’s executive engineer was authorised to buy the materials up to Rs 50,000 at his level through tendering in special conditions, but the official records revealed that materials/items for repairing was bought from contractors for Rs 2.28 crore as per first and final bills, said the sources.

The sources claimed that the inquiry had found the accused guilty of making wrong entries in the records, not taking entire bills of items purchased for repairing work, not depositing these things to government store and not recording the exact details of the work done through the JCM machines in the measurement book.

A case has been registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently uses as genuine), said a police official.

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