FIR against firm for submitting ₹109 cr fake bills for Kumbh-2019

PRAYAGRAJ : An FIR was registered at Daraganj police station against a prominent firm Lalloo Ji and Sons for allegedly trying to defraud the state government of Rs 109.85 crore by submitting forged bills for goods provided during Kumbh-2019, said police.

The FIR was registered on Friday night against the firm and its 11 partners on the complaint submitted by the then additional Kumbh Mela Adhikari Dayanand Prasad, said Station House Officer (SHO) of Daraganj police station JP Shahi.

The SHO said the firm has been associated with the Mahakumbh, Kumbh and Magh Mela fairs for decades providing tents, furniture and loudspeakers among others.

The complaint claims that the Prayagraj Mela Authority contracted Lalloo Ji and Sons to set up the biggest ever non-permanent tent city of the country for Kumbh-2019 and for this the firm was entrusted with the work of providing tents, tin sheets, carpets and furniture on contract basis.

The firm submitted bills worth Rs 196.24 crore between

February 2017 and July 6, 2019. However, scrutiny of the bills during the verification process showed that bills worth just Rs 86.38 crore were correct while the remaining amount of Rs 109.85 crore was found to be fake and prepared on the basis of fake signatures and documents, the complaint alleges.

Vikay Kiran Anand, the Kumbh Mela Adhikari, Prayagraj Mela Authority said the firm had raised fake bills worth crores.

“If payments made to the firm from all departments are taken in to account, it has been paid around Rs 171 crore but its officials have still resorted to such an act,” he said. Anand added that the firm had on August 2020 moved for arbitration court and had presented its documents there.

“However, during trial those documents were found to contain fake signatures of our officials following which now the case has been lodged,” he said added that the firm has been blacklisted by the Prayagraj Mela Authority for the next five years.