ICDS scam: 4 government officers among 6 booked by ACB, 2 middlemen arrested
The corruption was exposed in the Women and Child Development department’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) department. The ACB officials said that the arrests were made after it came up during investigation that a particular firm was given undue benefit in the tender process.
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ACB
Jaipur: Rajasthan anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested two middlemen, identified as CK Joshi and Kamaljeet Ranawat and lodged FIRs against six others including four government officers in connection with alleged corruption in the tender process for procuring floor desks.
The corruption was exposed in the Women and Child Development department’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) department. The ACB officials said that the arrests were made after it came up during investigation that a particular firm was given undue benefit in the tender process. One of the middlemen was taken on police remand for further interrogation.
ADG, ACB Alok Tripathi said that the action was taken after a complaint was registered by one Bhomeshwar Thanavi. The process of selecting the firm through the tender is being conducted by the ICDS.
The ACB has registered an FIR against Technocraft Associate’s proprietor Vishnu Banwani, additional director (IEC) ICDS Someshwar Devada, joint director of the department of industries PR Sharma alais Panchu Ram Sharma, then financial adviser of ICDS Smita Sareen and labor department’s personal secretary Bhagwan Das.
“The department is buying floor desks. The floor desks are reserved with the Rajasthan government for tender through MSME sector, but in order to benefit a particular firm some government officers fraudulently marked this furniture item to be a plastic furniture item. By doing this, they managed to remove the tender from the reserve list of MSME sector items,” said Tripathi.
After receiving the complaint, the ACB launched an investigation and found the allegations to be genuine.
“The ACB arrested two middlemen, CK Joshi and Kamaljeet Ranawat who connived with ICDS officials to manage the tender process fraudulently. They tried to make sure that the tender is awarded to a firm named Technocraft. They went to the extent of creating a dummy firm to bid for the tender. They also changed the tender terms to throw other real companies out of the competition,” said Tripathi.
The ACB has registered an FIR against Technocraft Associate’s proprietor Vishnu Banwani, additional director (IEC) ICDS Someshwar Devada, joint director of the department of industries PR Sharma alais Panchu Ram Sharma, then financial adviser of ICDS Smita Sareen and labor department’s personal secretary Bhagwan Das.
The two middlemen have also been booked.
“FIR has been lodged against unidentified officials also,” said Tripathi. The case was investigated under the supervision of IG, ACB VK Singh.
