Team Herald
PANJIM: A senior officer of the Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) and five others in Mumbai and Goa have been booked for misappropriating nearly Rs 6.5 crore funds of the Corporation.
The Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Goa has booked Deputy General Manager posted in the KRCL at Margao, Chief Manager (Administration) Nandu Telang in Navi Mumbai KRCL, retired KRCL officials in Mumbai Bhanu Tayal and Uday Das; Amarnath Gupta of a Margao-based real estate firm and Sudhir Phadke of Mumbai after an inquiry concerning the dealings of Konkan Railways Welfare Organisation (KRWO) for providing affordable accommodation to the KRCL staff, revealed gross illegality and irregularity.
As per the details shared by the CBI, between 2011 and 2013, the KRCL officials abused their position to show undue favour to Gupta by purchasing from him land admeasuring 5,550 sq mts at a rate allegedly 10 times more than the market price.
“They cheated the KRCL to the tune of Rs 6.5 crore. The funds of the KRCL are misappropriated under the guise of payment for miscellaneous expenses. The land so acquired in undue haste was never put to intended use also, that is, for the construction of the affordable housing for the KRCL staff,” the inquiry revealed.
The inquiry mentioned that the accused KRCL officials had decided to take up the housing projects in Margao, Ratnagiri, Navi Mumbai and Surathkal.
In the case of Margao project, the report states, no proper demand survey was carried out and no commitment money was collected from the interested buyers as against the stipulated by-laws of the KRWO.
“Further, no essential information – project location, estimated cost, tentative date of the launch of the project, etc was communicated to the interested buyers, thereby rendering the very objective of such a Demand Survey a futile exercise. It was found that not even the result of the so called Demand Survey was kept on record by KRWO,” it said.
In November 2011, a plot at Survey Number 30/3 at Davorlim was purchased by the KRWO from Gupta but it was found that only 5550 sq mts of land was actually purchased out of the 11000 sq mts initially earmarked for the purchase. The enquiry also found that a whopping amount was transferred into the account of the Margao-based KRCL officer in guise of payment towards liasing charges, etc. The concerned officer was tasked with procuring construction licence, and nearly Rs 28 lakh transferred into his account; two others also allegedly pocketed the money. It was later in 2015 that a group of tenants dragged the KRWO to the court the hearing of which is currently pending.
Owing to the ongoing legal issues as well as exorbitant rate by which the land was purchased, KRWO could not sell the property putting the KRCL in a loss to the tune of Rs 6.5 crore. Being a case of serious nature, CBI SP V Ashok Kumar has appointed Deputy SP T Santhosh Kumar as the investigating officer.
