CBI charges senior MEA officials for financial irregularities

New Delhi, Jul 6 (PTI) A serving and a retired Indian
Foreign Service (I.F.S.) officer will face three Central
Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I.) cases of alleged criminal
conspiracy, cheating and abuse of official position, in an
unprecedented action by the investigating agency against
officials of the elite service.
C.B.I. has registered three cases against Rakesh Kumar,
a 1971 batch I.F.S. officer, who retired some months ago, and
Madhup Mohta of the 1985 batch for alleged financial
irregularities during their tenure in the Indian Council for
Cultural Relations (I.C.C.R.).
Three First Information Report (F.I.R.s) were filed
against Kumar and Mohta under sections 120-B (criminal
conspiracy), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, 13(2)
(criminal misconduct) and 13(i)(d) (abuse of official
position) of Prevention of Corruption Act in the special court
here recently.
According to the C.B.I.'s F.I.R., Kumar and Mohta,
during their tenure as Director General and Deputy Director
General in the I.C.C.R., allegedly entered into a criminal
conspiracy while awarding tenders for creation of I.C.C.R.
website, preparing an Interactive CD Rom on highlights of
India and Audio-Video material for Hindi language for a total
cost of Rs 34 lakh in November, 2004.
The C.B.I. alleged that the officials awarded the
contract for creation of I.C.C.R. website to M/S Learning
Links -- which did not have any experience for the same
besides being the highest bidder in the tendering procedure.
The C.B.I. alleged in the F.I.R. that Mohta, who is at
present posted in the Indian High Commission at London, and
Kumar, already chargesheeted in a human trafficking case,
allegedly conspired for other two projects and gave tenders in
arbitrary manner to companies without following proper
procedures.
M/S Learning Link has also been named in the F.I.R. by
the C.B.I., the sources said.
In the second F.I.R., the C.B.I. alleged that Mohta and
Kumar allegedly conspired with some other firms in award of
tender to prepare promotional audio-video clips for websites
on theaters of India and on folk and classical dances in March
2005 for 18 lakh.
The C.B.I. alleged that the contract was awarded to M/s
Anju Visual and none of the quotations were found to be in a
sealed envelope, as is the practice.
During investigations, C.B.I. questioned other companies
whose bids had been submitted and it was found that they had
never applied for the tender, the C.B.I. sources said.
The third case related to making of a documentary film
for which tenders were issued in March 2005. The total amount
involved was Rs 30 lakh for making documentary films on folk
theaters of South, West and Central India.
The C.B.I. alleged that Kumar and Mohta allegedly
conspired with some companies and the contract was given to
Bangalore-based Cinermatrix and Mumbai-based Kalakriti and
S.K. Production.
The investigating agency alleged that the two M.E.A.
officials did not issue any tenders thus violating the basic
rule amounting to abuse of their official position for
pecuniary advantage to a particular private firm.
C.B.I. had registered a Preliminary Enquiry against
Mohta and Kumar, enmeshed in allegations of human trafficking,
in April 2006 for the alleged financial irregularities.
The C.B.I. had seized all the records and was going
through them besides checking the quotations of other printers
who had submitted their bids.