2 Gurugram XENs booked for fraud

Gurugram, July 23

Seven persons — two XENs, one junior engineer, one assistant engineer and three contractors — have been booked for allegedly getting bills of over Rs 2 crore sanctioned fraudulently.

The accused allegedly used fake satisfactory certificates of local councillors. The payment was stopped after the fraud was exposed during an audit.

An FIR has been registered against XENs Gopal Kalawat and Pankaj Saini, junior engineer Vinod Kumar, assistant engineer Vicky Kumar and contractors Dilawar Singh, Raj Kumar and Pawan Balhara.

Mukesh Kumar Ahuja, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Gurugram, said, “This matter has been under investigation even before I joined. I will ensure a speedy inquiry.”

The matter was flagged by Vinay Pratap Singh, the then commissioner of the Gurugram Municipal Corporation, in November last year. In his letter to additional chief secretary of urban local bodies department, he said he had received a number of complaints that payments for development works like repair of roads and streets, drains and laying of sewer lines were being put up in a suspicious manner.

Pradeep Ahlawat, Joint Commissioner, who was told to probe the case, found that the accused officers and contractors were involved in the fraud. — OC

Used ‘fake’ papers for bill approvals

• XENs Kalawat and Saini along with other officials got Rs2 cr bills approved ‘fraudulently’
• They allegedly used fake satisfactory certificates of local councillors
• The fraud came to light during an audit and a case was filed