Petition against Jain to be heard next week: Delhi High Court

New Delhi : A city court will hear a petition next week whether an FIR has to be lodged against city PWD minister Satyendar Jain and three PWD officers, alleging irregularities of over Rs 90 crore in awarding contracts for road and drain works in Delhi.

Metropolitan magistrate Abhilash Malhotra admitted the petition and kept it for consideration till Dec. 6 after the complainant’s lawyer A.R.M. Pandey briefed the Delhi court on the case.

The plea, filed by Rahul Sharma, founder of NGO Road Anti-Corruption Organisation, has alleged that during 2014-17, officials of Delhi governments Public Works Department (PWD) had allocated contracts for their pecuniary benefits as well as that of the contractors for the work “which never got completed, whereas shockingly all payments have been cleared”.

The complaint, filed through advocate Kislay Pandey, also alleged irregularities in 125 matters of construction of roads, drains and other maintenance work with an estimated cost of more than of Rs 90 crore.

It was also alleged that during 2014-17, a PWD executive engineer had allocated contracts for his own pecuniary benefit and that of the contractors and other accused public servants “for the work which never got completed whereas shockingly all the payments have been cleared”.

The petition has further sought an investigation into the PWD minister’s role in causing gain to contractors allegedly by using ministerial influence and prosecution of PWD officials — Anil Trehan, executive engineer, Mukesh Kumar, superintending engineer and Eesh Kumar Anand, accountant, for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery.