CBI files charge sheet against ex-BDA engineer for taking Rs 5 cr bribe

Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a charge sheet against former executive engineer of the Bangalore Development Authority, P.D. Kumar for allegedly receiving Rs 5 crore from I-Monetary Advisory (IMA), which is facing a probe in a Rs 4,000-crore scam, to help the company get a clean chit from the Karnataka revenue department, officials said on Friday.

In its charge sheet filed before the principal sessions judge for CBI cases, Bengaluru, the CBI has named, apart from Kumar, CEO and MD of IMA Group Mohammed Mansoor Khan, directors Nizamuddin Ahamed, Vaseem, Naveed Ahmed, Nazir Hussain, and the company itself.

"During investigation, it was found that a bribe amount of Rs 5 crore was allegedly paid in four installments of Rs.1.5 crore, Rs.1 crore, Rs.1.5 crore and Rs.1 crore during April-May, 2019 by the Board of Directors to Kumar. It was alleged that these amounts were paid on the instructions of CEO & MD of said Group as part of the conspiracy hatched between him and Kumar, in which it was decided that the Executive Engineer would influence the officials of Revenue Department, Government of Karnataka to accept the Closure Report submitted by Competent Authority & then Assistant Commissioner, Bangalore North Sub-Division, Bangalore Urban District," the CBI said in a statement.

The closure report was submitted in April, 2019 to the revenue department. The CEO & MD as stated by the CBI waited for this closure report to be accepted. It was further alleged that the BDA engineer was identified due to his old acquaintances with the senior officials in the revenue department. The engineer demanded Rs 5 crore with a promise to ensure the acceptance of the closure report. However, the report was not accepted by the then Principal Secretary, revenue department. It was sent to the law department for opinion and on being not satisfied with the report, he referred it to DGP, Karnataka, for further enquiry in the matter.

It was also alleged that since the work was not done, the CEO and the Board of Directors of the scam-hit company put pressure on Kumar to return the bribe amount. He allegedly returned Rs 30 lakh as per the books of accounts of IMA and issued two cheques for Rs 2 crore and Rs 2.5 crore as a security till the return of the remaining bribe amount in cash. These two cheques issued by Kumar were recovered during investigation. The CBI said that several WhatsApp chats between him and the IMA directors about the file movement, gate digital access logs showing the different entry, statements of several witnesses have been gathered as evidence.

The agency is probing four cases in connection with the IMA scam which are being monitored by the Karnataka High Court.

The CBI had earlier filed several charge sheets in connection with the scam. This is a multi-crore scam which involved unauthorised collection of deposits from a large number of depositors. "Investigation is continuing on a day-to-day basis," CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said in a statement.