CBI books former CMD of Heavy Engineering Corporation in corruption case

The CBI has registered a corruption case against former chairman and managing director of Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd HECL Avijit Ghosh officials said on MondayGhosh has been booked for alleged irregularities in setting up a centre of excellence for skill development in collaboration with CNIITMASH a joint stock company of Russia they saidThe agency has alleged that Ghosh and others entered into a criminal conspiracy with CNIITMASH during 201519 with intention to cheat government exchequer by floating manipulated Expression of InterestThe CBI which registered an FIR under IPC section of criminal conspiracy and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act after a yearlong preliminary enquiry said that the Centre had launched a scheme in November 2014 with an objective to boost Indian economy by making the Indian Capital Goods Sector globally competitiveUnder the scheme the government had to facilitate grantinaid to the industries which would form a special purpose vehicle SPV as not for profit companies societies trust for setting up of Common Engineering Facility Centre CEFC the officials saidAccording to the scheme the Centre had to provide onetime grantinaid up to 80 per cent of the project cost with a cap of Rs 4896 crore for two CEFCs while balance 20 per cent required to be invested by the SPV the FIR saidThe HECL floated an Expression of Interest EOI for attracting the international reputed firms and research institutes for technological collaboration and transfer so that most of the equipment can be manufactured and commissioned indigenously by itThe CBI alleged that Ghosh sent a back dated proposal to the Ministry of Heavy Industries for setting up centre of excellence for skill development with consultation fee of Rs 30 crore to CNIITMASH which was to be paid out of grant to train 1350 engineers in various specialities over a period of three yearsIt emerged that only one batch of 86 engineers was trained and payment of Rs 16 crore was made to CNIITMASHThe CBI preliminary enquiry flagged a number of irregularities in the process like nontransparent and biased EOI process changes made without approval of the Board or the ministry and payments made sending false information and on furnishing of false completion certificates the FIR saidThe rationale of the negotiation is also biased as to how the agreed price was arrived at There was overall lack of supervision and violation to the norms and regulations laid down Another aspect on the part of the chosen agency is the fact that they did not have the technology in steel plant and items of their own but claimed the same in March 2015 it allegedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever