New Delhi: A Delhi court Monday accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation’s clean chit to former Delhi minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Jain in a six-year-old case of hiring architects for Delhi’s Public Works Department. Submitting a closure report, the CBI said they had found no criminality or violation of established procedure.
Special CBI Judge Dig Vinay Singh accepted the CBI’s closure report, which said the need to hire external architects was justified.
The report was first filed in April 2022 before the court, but it was accepted only on Monday, as the Delhi’s Department of Vigilance opposed the CBI’s closure report, alleging an overwhelming reliance on the statements of the accused persons and overlooking documentary evidence.
The agency had in May 2018 booked Jain and PWD officials such as Sarvagaya Kumar Srivastava, the then Engineer-in-Chief, Manu Amitabh, the then Principal Director, A.K. Pait, the then Deputy Director, P.C. Chanana, the then Project Manager under 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
There were allegations that a 17-member creative team of consultants was hired through a third-party company, Soni Detective & Allied Services Private Limited, via the manipulation of the tender process and the bypassing of set government procedures. Additionally, it was alleged that eligibility criteria for hiring these consultants was watered down and that their payments were added as expenditure for unrelated projects without prior approval from the finance department.
After registering the case, the agency examined at least nine aspects related to the allegations levelled against Jain, and other officials of the PWD, such as the need for hiring consultants, method and transparency in the recruitment process, required financial authority and whether any illegal gains were made by the accused persons, among other necessary criteria.
“After having investigated the matter for about four years, CBI found no criminality or evidence of personal gain, bribery, or any criminal intent or violation of financial rules,” Special Judge Singh observed in the order.
“In the facts and circumstances mentioned above, in the absence of any evidence and sanction, the present final report for closure of the FIR is accepted,” he further noted.
However, he kept the agency at liberty to probe the matter further in case new details emerge against any accused in the case.
‘Recruitment justified, process followed PWD manual’
In its investigation, the agency found that the need to hire professionals was justified because there were no in-house experts to deal with conceptual, design, and planning matters related to key infrastructure projects, such as smart schools, hospitals, clinics, and road design in the national capital.
Moreover, the agency also found a 50 percent vacancy in the post of architects in the PWD, as 25 of the 50 posts were vacant.
The agency submitted that the origin of the idea was floated by the then Officer on Special Duty to Jain on 1 September 2015, after which the process for hiring of young and qualified professionals from premier institutions such as IITs, IIMs, National Institutes of Design (NIDs), and School of Planning and Architecture for the posts of architects, landscape planners and urban designers was kickstarted.
The agency reported that the department received 1,700 applications as the hiring process was initiated with an open advertisement. However, to avoid complications around claims of permanent employment in the future by selected candidates, the hiring process was outsourced to a third-party company.
Of the 1,700 applicants, 200 gave their consent to work with a third-party company, for which another open tender was invited. In this tender, Soni Detective & Allied Services Private Limited was the lowest bidder and won the tender.
An interview board including experts such as the CMD of HUDCO, the Ex-DG of CPWD, and the Chief Architect of DMRC, selected a total of 17 consultants through interviews conducted between 15 and 26 February 2016.
A total of 126 candidates were interviewed, out of which the board recommended 27, and ultimately 17 were hired by Soni Detective & Allied Services for the work of PWD on a contractual basis, the agency found in its probe and documented it in the closure report.
The agency found that monthly remunerations were set at Rs 50,000 for fresh graduates, Rs 75,000 for post-graduates and those with experience of three years and for candidates with a Master of Business Administration at Rs 1 lakh—in alignment with regular earnings of PWD architects who earned between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1.95 lakh a month.
The agency found that these consultants managed 82 projects, including the design and execution of AAP’s flagship Mohalla Clinics and Aam Aadmi Clinics, as well as projects related to 3D modelling and geo-referencing for the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
The agency also did not find any evidence supporting allegations of eligibility criteria being lowered; instead, it found that highly qualified candidates joined before many of them left later for better opportunities.
“CBI found no irregularities in the recruitment process. The remuneration and qualifications of the professionals hired were justified. Many of the professionals were from reputable institutions, with degrees from top institutes, and there was no evidence of undue benefits from their engagement. Since many left later for higher-paying jobs, it suggests they were not unduly enriched,” Special Judge Singh documented, citing the agency’s closure report.
Dealing with the allegations of changing the names of projects to issue expenditure from “Barapulla Phase-III” to “Mohalla Clinics,” the agency found that these moves were “administratively appropriate” as the Barapullah project was funded both by the Centre and the Delhi government, while the funds reallocated to Mohalla Clinics were allocated solely by the Delhi Government. The move was aimed at reducing audit concerns and indicating that there was no criminal intent behind the name change, and subsequently, there was no loss to the state exchequer, the agency stated.
Addressing the allegations of bypassing the finance department in adopting the process, the agency found that the cost of the entire exercise was around Rs 3.83 crore—well within the Rs 5 crore limit delegated to the Principal Secretary of the PWD and hence prior approval from the finance department was not mandatory.
“The hiring of professionals was necessary due to urgent departmental needs. A transparent recruitment process was followed through a competitive method, and no payments were made beyond prescribed norms and approved limits. Emoluments were neither excessive nor irregular,” Special Judge Singh observed in the order.
“Therefore, no evidence of corruption, criminal conspiracy, undue favour, or personal gain was found, and a closure report is preferred. Accordingly, the complaint was found lacking in substance, and the CBI recommends closure as no offence appears to have been established,” he further observed.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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