New Delhi: The anti-corruption branch (ACB) of Delhi govt has arrested a now-suspended executive engineer and a private contractor in connection with a major scam in the irrigation & flood control (I&FC) department. The accused are alleged to have fraudulently released public funds worth several crores for works that were never executed.According to ACB’s investigation, RCC drains and roads in north Delhi’s Siraspur village existed only on paper but the funds were still cleared. Furthermore, fake performance bank guarantees worth Rs 2.24 crore were submitted by the contractor and accepted by the department in gross violation of the established procedures.The accused engineer was identified as Gagan Kureel, a resident of Adarsh Nagar, while the contractor was Arun Gupta from Gandhi Nagar, officials said. Kureel, the former executive engineer of CD-VII division of the department, has been under suspension since Dec 2023 and Gupta is the proprietor of M/s Baba Construction Company, one of the firms under ACB’s scanner.The case originated after the department’s vigilance branch received a complaint, which led to a preliminary inquiry by a committee of engineers, formed by the principal secretary of the I&FC department to physically verify the works in question. The committee found that in four separate cases, 100% of the tendered amount was disbursed, despite no physical work being executed. The fraud involved the submission of forged bank guarantees and manipulated measurement and material test records.“Following the findings, prior sanction was obtained and an FIR was registered under Section 13(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC. The follow-up investigation revealed a complex web of fraudulent activities involving two construction companies. M/s Baba Construction Company was awarded three tenders worth approximately Rs 5.3 crore for the construction of RCC drains and roads in Siraspur, north Delhi,” said an ACB officer. No work was executed, yet Rs 4.2 crore was released fraudulently. Similarly, M/s Amba Construction Company received Rs 43.74 lakh against a contract valued at Rs 38.98 lakh for repair and painting work at the CTP network in north Delhi’s Burari, again with no work found at the site.Further investigation exposed a pattern of fabrication and manipulation. Fabricated material test reports and manipulated computerised measurement books (CMB) were created to support the fraudulent claims. Moreover, three fake performance bank guarantees totalling Rs 2.24 crore were submitted by the contractors, which were later found to be forged coloured copies not issued by any bank. The original CMBs related to these works were also missing, and the executive engineer was evasive when questioned, raising suspicions about a possible cover-up. Additionally, mandatory test checks and completion certifications by designated engineers were not conducted, indicating a deliberate bypassing of laid-down protocols.The investigation is ongoing, and further arrests and departmental actions are likely as more evidence emerges, ACB officials said. ACB is working to identify the involvement of other public officials and private individuals who may be complicit in the scam, said an officer.
