CBI closure report in case on ad firms accepted

A special court has accepted the CBI’s closure report filed in a case lodged last year against 10 advertising agencies and unknown officials of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) for allegedly causing a loss to the state exchequer.

The CBI had registered the case on the allegation that in November 2011, the ministry of defence’s (MoD) integrated headquarters (Navy) had placed an order with DAVP for outdoor publicity/Navy campaign within a budget of `1 crore and later it was enhanced to `2 crore by the officials without any approval of the Navy and director-general of the DAVP.

It had alleged that orders were issued in favour of 15 advertising agencies in which bulk orders were placed to M/s Graphis Ads Pvt Ltd and M/s Pioneers but during monitoring, largescale irregularities and deficiencies in the works on the part of 10 advertising agencies were pointed out.

It had also claimed that in spite of objections raised about deficiency in work, 100 per cent payment was made to the 10 firms by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity officials, allegedly abusing their official position in connivance with the proprietors of the advertising agencies, which resulted in loss to the exchequer.

A case was lodged for all-eged offences punishable under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and provisions of the Pre-vention of Corruption Act.

However, after conducting a probe into the matter, the CBI filed a closure report in the court saying that advertising agencies had displayed the advertisements as per the terms and conditions of the DAVP and no deficiency was found in it.

Regarding the alleged loss to the exchequer, the agency said although it was found during investigation that excess payment was made to seven advertising firms, the matter had been sent to the DAVP to recover the excess payments.