Pvt firm booked for cheating police in contract for signals

NEWDELHI: The Delhi Police have registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy against a private firm that had been awarded a contract for installing and maintaining traffic signals and speed-checking camera systems.

The case was registered by the Economic Offences Wing on Monday after the Delhi Police’s vigilance unit conducted a probe and found that the firm had allegedly “misrepresented” about its “technical competency” while seeking the contracts from the traffic police.

Delhi Police identified the firm as M/S Turbo Consultancy Private Limited.

An official who identified himself as the firm’s spokesperson denied the allegations and said they were yet to receive a copy of the complaint.

“We want to clarify that the allegations are 100% wrong. We have done all the work that we were tasked with. The police also placed multiple orders with us during our association with them. Why would they task us with more work if we were not doing a good job,” said the official.

The police’s statement had accused the firm of neglecting the traffic equipments over the years.

“It was found that after some time (of awarding the contract to the firm), the equipments remained idle or unutilised for want of maintenance and repair,” said the police, adding it amounted to “cheating the department”.

The FIR registered on the complaint of the Delhi Traffic Police alleged that the firm was associated with the department from 2000 to 2017, during which they were given a contract for Rs 5.9 crore for the installation and upkeep of traffic signals and speed-checking camera systems.

While the systems installed by them were meant to work for a period of 10 years, the cameras did not work for the prescribed time period, the complaint alleged.

After one-and-a-half years of installation of the camera systems, many equipment remained dysfunctional and idle. “None of the cameras installed by this firm lived their full life span,” the complainant alleged.

The traffic police alleged that all these indicated that the company “misrepresented” to the police and “thus made wrongful gain” and “caused loss to the government exchequer”.

“The company did not have the required expertise, competency, potential, experience and technical knowledge to install, repair, upkeep and maintain the cameras, but misrepresented to the government, which shows mischief and cheating intentions on its part,” the complaint added.