Former sarpanch, others booked for embezzling ₹10 crore, say cops

POLICE SAID THE EMBEZZLEMENT TOOK PLACE IN 2020 DURING THE PANDEMIC WHEN CONSTRUCTION WORK WAS NOT TAKING PLACE

GURUGRAM: Several persons, including a former sarpanch and a former panchayat secretary, were booked on Saturday for their alleged involvement in embezzling more than ₹10.77 crore by showing construction of a basketball court, cricketing ground, solar power plants, speed breakers and several other infrastructure projects at Shikohpur panchayat in Manesar, police said on Sunday.

They were found to be nonexistent during a physical inspection in the course of an inquiry, police added.

Investigators said the entire embezzlement took place in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic when almost no construction work was taking place.

They said that after an inquiry, it was found that the purchase bills, allegedly of fictitious firms, were placed in record, two to three contractors were given work orders for multiple projects and no tender was floated for procurements.

Police said the corruption came to light in early 2021, when a villager from Shikohpur, which was a panchayat at that time but presently falls under the Municipal Corporation Manesar (MCM), submitted a complaint to the chief minister and deputy commissioner of Gurugram Another villager had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court for an inquiry on the large-scale embezzlement.

Investigators said ₹1.87 crore was shown spent for a modern cricket stadium, ₹45.13 lakh was shown spent on installing 1,500 speed-breakers, ₹58.44 lakh for basketball court, ₹96.85 lakh for football ground, ₹83.57 lakh for veterinary hospital and cattle shed, ₹1.6 crore for beautification of a panchayat school building and public places such as parks, which included paintings and murals, ₹4.46 crore for at least five solar plants and lights were shown as expenditure on development of the village, most of which do not exist.

A senior police officer said that no artworks or murals were ever found in the village during a physical inspection carried out on April 8, 2022. “The firm whose bills were used for showing the purchase of solar items was actually found to be a company manufacturing concrete pipes,” he said. “A roller weighing 1.5 tonnes for the cricket stadium was shown to be purchased on bills which was found to be worth about ₹19.45 lakh, but it was learnt that its market price was only ₹5 lakh,” he said.

“Instead of a football ground, barren land was found. Villagers also said they had never seen any basketball court in the village,” he added. “It has also surfaced that two officials of development and panchayats department of Haryana, posted in Gurugram at that time, had shown negligence in conducting the probe. Their roles are also being thoroughly probed”, he added.

Gurugram deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said a committee of two officials is conducting the inquiry in the case in which the former sarpanch was found guilty.

Lakhan Singh, the former sarpanch, alleged that all the infrastructure exists on the ground. “This FIR is a conspiracy by the opposition to malign my image”, he alleged.

Naresh Kumar, the block development and panchayat officer of Gurugram, said that the then deputy commissioner had ordered a detailed inquiry after receiving the complaints. “The inquiry was headed by the additional deputy commissioner of Gurugram in which the issues raised in the complaints were found to be true,” he said.

“Physical verification was done in which none of the infrastructure shown in the files were found to be existing on ground,” Kumar said.

Kumar said that around six months back, orders were issued to get an FIR registered in the case but the former sarpanch moved the high court and sought a stay against the proceeding to book him. “However, after further hearing, the high court also removed the stay by dismissing his petition and we got clearance to register an FIR,” he said.

On Kumar’s complaint, an FIR against the former sarpanch, panchayat secretary and panchs of Shikohpur panchayat in whose tenure the alleged fraud took place and unidentified contractors was registered. Rajender Kumar, SHO of Kherki Daula police station, said they will investigate the case.