CBI books 7 HAL officials for Rs 5 crores fraud payments to contractors

Bhubaneshwar : NP NEWS 24 ONLINE- The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked seven officials of the government owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) over corruption charges. It is alleged that around Rs. 5 crore have been paid to the contractors from January to August 2018 based on forgery and misappropriation of company funds.

Uday Kumar Raut, Manager (Vigilance), Engine Division, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Vigilance Department, Koraput, Odisha, has lodged the complaint CBI.

The acts of the public servants, namely, Shri Bhaben Maitra, Sr. Manager (Finance), Shri Abinash Kumar Sarkar, Assistant (Finance/Accounts), Smt. Subhashree Das(contract labour of HAL), W/o- Shri Abinash Kumar Sarkar, all of HAL, Koraput, unknown officials of HAL and contractors/ vendors, namely, Shri Jayaram Garada, Shri Bipra Charana Maharana, Shri Jisudan Khosla, Shri Urdhab Khosla & Shri Sadananda Nayak, all resident of Sunabeda, Koraput & unknown others, as mentioned in the complaint, prima facie, disclosed commission of the offences punishable U/s 120-B, 409, 420, 468 & 471 of IPC and section 13(1)(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018).

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The complaint states, “During a half-yearly internal audit carried out on 06 Oct 2018 in Bills Payable Section of HAL Engine Division, Sunabeda, Koraput District, Odisha, certain payment vouchers against bill payments were scrutinized. Prima facie, it was noticed that certain payments against the vouchers were made without any supporting documents, viz., bills, invoices, work orders etc. It is gathered during the scrutiny that Shri Bhaben Maitra, HAL PB No.7453, Senior Manager (Finance), Grade-V, Engine Division, Koraput, Odisha, who is the officer-in-charge of Bills Payable Section & Cash Office of the Engine Division had approved some vouchers on the name of contractors from January to August 2018 without any supporting documents. Vigilance Department also carried out scrutiny of documents related to Bills Payable Section. The preliminary scrutiny of payment vouchers for the period from January to August 2018 revealed that payments of more than 5 crores have been made to contractors of HAL without any supporting documents.”

The accused officers have been suspended by the HAL.