Ghaziabad: A former chief secretary of Tripura, Yash Pal Singh, was arrested on Monday in connection with a multi-crore PWD scam in the northeastern state. He was arrested from a friend’s house in Indirapuram in a joint operation by police of the two states.
Singh would be presented before a Ghaziabad court on Tuesday and taken to Agartala on transit remand after a hearing. A resident of Delhi, Tripura Police said the former bureaucrat had been hiding at the friend’s house for the past two days.
Singh was arrested almost four months after an FIR was lodged into the Rs 640-crore scam. He was the principal secretary (PWD) during the erstwhile Left Front government in Tripura between 2008 and 2009 and is accused of influencing the process of issuing tenders for government projects. Sources said Singh had given PWD projects to private contractors against money. He was the principal secretary at that time, but retired as chief secretary of the state government.
“The accused had in 2008-09 given 13 projects to private contractors — five bridges, five buildings and three roads — and implemented them for Rs 638 crore on a cost-plus basis, which is limited up to a maximum of 10% of the estimated cost,” said Ajay Das, the investigating officer into the case.
After Left Front was ousted and BJP formed the government, an internal inquiry was initiated into the implementation of all projects between 2008 and 2018. A probe report was submitted by a PWD vigilance team, which also lodged a police complaint against Singh, Chowdhury and Bhowmick.
As Singh evaded the cops, former Tripura minister and CPM veteran Badal Choudhury and ex-PWD chief engineer Sunil Bhowmik were arrested in connection with the case. They are currently out on bail.
A senior officer of Tripura Police said the FIR into the case had been registered on October 13 last year. “Singh had been absconding ever since he came to know that his name had surfaced in connection with the case. We have been trying to trace his number for the past four months, but to no avail. He kept changing his number and location. Somehow, we managed to track his latest number and arrested him from a friend’s place in Indirapuram,” he added.
Singh and the others were booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 418 (cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensue to person whose interest offender is bound to protect), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Singh would be presented before a Ghaziabad court on Tuesday and taken to Agartala on transit remand after a hearing. A resident of Delhi, Tripura Police said the former bureaucrat had been hiding at the friend’s house for the past two days.
Singh was arrested almost four months after an FIR was lodged into the Rs 640-crore scam. He was the principal secretary (PWD) during the erstwhile Left Front government in Tripura between 2008 and 2009 and is accused of influencing the process of issuing tenders for government projects. Sources said Singh had given PWD projects to private contractors against money. He was the principal secretary at that time, but retired as chief secretary of the state government.
“The accused had in 2008-09 given 13 projects to private contractors — five bridges, five buildings and three roads — and implemented them for Rs 638 crore on a cost-plus basis, which is limited up to a maximum of 10% of the estimated cost,” said Ajay Das, the investigating officer into the case.
After Left Front was ousted and BJP formed the government, an internal inquiry was initiated into the implementation of all projects between 2008 and 2018. A probe report was submitted by a PWD vigilance team, which also lodged a police complaint against Singh, Chowdhury and Bhowmick.
As Singh evaded the cops, former Tripura minister and CPM veteran Badal Choudhury and ex-PWD chief engineer Sunil Bhowmik were arrested in connection with the case. They are currently out on bail.
A senior officer of Tripura Police said the FIR into the case had been registered on October 13 last year. “Singh had been absconding ever since he came to know that his name had surfaced in connection with the case. We have been trying to trace his number for the past four months, but to no avail. He kept changing his number and location. Somehow, we managed to track his latest number and arrested him from a friend’s place in Indirapuram,” he added.
Singh and the others were booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 418 (cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensue to person whose interest offender is bound to protect), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
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