Two days after conducting searches at 37 places as part of its money laundering probe into alleged corruption to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore in the construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it recovered 322 bank passbooks linked to mule accounts. The ED also recovered original departmental files belonging to the Delhi Government along with rubber stamps bearing the names and designations of officials from the Public Works Department (PWD).
The mule accounts, the agency said, were opened in the names of labourers and used to divert government funds under the guise of legitimate transactions.
On April 30, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain over alleged corruption in the construction of classrooms. The ACB questioned Sisodia in connection with the case on Friday.
“The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of the FIR registered by the ACB against Manish Sisodia (the then Education Minister), Satyendra Jain (the then PWD Minister) and others pertaining to financial misappropriation exceeding Rs 2,000 crore in the construction of approximately 12,748 additional classrooms by the PWD between 2015 and 2023,” a ED spokesperson said.
According to the central agency, despite an initial requirement for 2,405 classrooms, the project’s scope was arbitrarily increased to 7,180 equivalent classrooms, and subsequently to 12,748 rooms without proper sanction or approvals, resulting in massive cost escalations.
“Also, there was unjustified adoption of richer specifications proposed by M/s Babbar & Babbar Associates, and execution of duplicate and inflated works. Cost escalations of up to 49.03 per cent were observed across Priority-I and Priority-II phases,” the ED spokesperson stated.
During its searches, the agency allegedly found substantial incriminating evidence from the premises of a private contractor. “Among the materials seized were original departmental files belonging to the Delhi government, as well as rubber stamps bearing the names and designations of officials from the PWD,” the spokesperson added.
“The ED has found forged letterheads of various private contractors and shell entities which were used to generate fake procurement records, and fictitious purchase bills were seized,” the spokesperson said.
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“Evidences relating to fake invoices submitted to Delhi government departments, showing inflated or entirely bogus claims, were found and seized. Several dummy firms have been found during the search which had no real infrastructure, documentation, or operational legitimacy, but were shown to have received substantial payments for construction activities relating to the additional classrooms. Additionally, substantial incriminating documents and digital evidence have been recovered and seized during the search,” the ED spokesperson added.
Earlier, in response to the ED action, the AAP had said: “The BJP is relentlessly bulldozing jhuggis and demolishing livelihoods of the poor and marginalised across Delhi. These so-called raids are nothing but a desperate attempt to divert public attention from that reality. The allegations are baseless, politically motivated, and timed only to distract from the BJP’s anti-people actions.”
Reference
ED says it seized 322 bank passbooks
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