Jharsuguda: A scam allegedly took place in the purchase of LED lights in Belpahar municipality of Jharsuguda district six years ago.
On the basis on an allegation, the Vigilance had registered a case and started an investigation which later slowed down and could not be carried forward thereafter.
After six years, the anti-corruption agency has become active and resumed its investigation. The vigilance had issued notices to nine people for inquiry.
The Vigilance officials grilled former Belpahar civic body chairperson Rashmirekha Mishra, former chairperson Prasuram Sahu, former executive officer Sachidananada satpathy, former executive officer Tapas Ranjan Jena, clerk Ashok Sahu, lineman Pramod Kumar Rath, helper Debananda Pradhan, helper Ashok Bhainsal and owners of LED bulb supply agency Sachidananda Mishra.
The Vigilance has obtained valuable data about the scam from these people during the five-phase grilling.
Besides, the Vigilance has seized documents while samples of the signatures of these people put in the documents have been sent to a laboratory to verify if they had genuinely singed on the documents. This was stated by Vigilance inspector Pradip Kumar Ainda.
He said that the Vigilance would prepare a report on the basis of the seized documents and some evidence.
In 2016, the Vigilance sleuths had registered a case against former Belpahar municipality chairman Rashmirekha Mishra and then executive officer Sachidananda Satpathy for embezzlement of government fund in the purchase of LED bulbs. It was alleged that over Rs 17 lakh has been misappropriated in the purchase of LED bulbs in 2015.
It was alleged that during the tenure of Rashmirekha as the chairman, there was no tender for purchase of 432 LED lights for Belpahar municipality. At that time the retailing price of each LED light was Rs 10,404, but its price was inflated as Rs 44,152.
Earlier, the Vigilance inquiry report had indicated involvement of other people in the scam. The LED lights were supplied by the TechMake company based in Bhubaneswar.
PNN
