UP engineer took Rs 100 crore bribe

Suspended Noida chief engineer Yadav Singh, facing a corruption probe by the CBI, is alleged to have pocketed over Rs 100 crores as undisclosed commission during his tenure between 2008-14. The agency on February 3 arrested Singh in connection with its ongoing probe into the case.

Sources said initial investigations reveal that according to a conservative estimate, projects of over Rs 2,500 crores were passed by Singh during his tenure, of which about an average of five per cent was allegedly taken by him as commission.

Late in November 2014, Singh had allegedly signed 1,280 contract bonds amounting to Rs 959 crores within a span of eight days, the agency has alleged in its FIR.

Sources further said these are conservative figures which have been arrived at from the statements of Noida staff, including some of the officials who were working closely with Singh. Sources said that the figures of alleged bribe may increase exponentially. The officials have reportedly told the investigative agencies — income-tax and the CBI — that the commission was allegedly taken by Singh personally which was above other set of bribe amount which percolated down to the lowest run of staff, sources claimed. Singh is being confronted with such details during his examination in the CBI custody, they added.

They said the agency sleuths are looking into every contract awarded during the tenure of Singh as chief engineer of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway and beneficiaries of those contracts will be examined by the CBI.

Singh is facing two CBI cases — one of corruption involved in giving contracts and the other of amassing properties in his and his family’s name which are disproportionate to the known sources of his income, they said. It has emerged in the probe so far that blatant violation of rule and regulations allegedly took place while awarding the contract, they said, adding that in one of the cases, a contract was signed in favour of a party which had already completed 60 per cent of the work.

The high court had ordered a CBI probe on the petition of activist Nutan Thakur, wife of suspended Uttar Pradesh IG Amitabh Thakur, alleging Singh had enjoyed plum postings under the regimes of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and incumbent Akhilesh Yadav and the state government was not acting against him.

He had executed projects worth around Rs 8,000 crore in Noida in the last 12 years, the Noida authority has said in a report, the PIL alleged.