Vigilance registers case for allotting transportation tenders on fake registration numbers of vehicles

Ludhiana August 16, 2022: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday registered a case against the owner/partners of Gurdas Ram & company as well as officers/officials of state Food & Civil Supplies department, and employees of concerned procurement agencies for committing irregularities in accepting labour, cartage and transportation tenders for grain markets in Ludhiana district. In this regard accused proprietor Telu Ram of village Udhanwal, SBS Nagar has been arrested by the VB range Ludhiana.

Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the State Vigilance Bureau (VB) said after verification of allegations levelled in complaint no 72/2022, a FIR No. 11 Dt 16-08-2022 u/s 420, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120 B IPC and 7, 8, 12, 13(2) Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia, proprietors of above mentioned private firm besides government officials.

Giving more details he informed that during the investigation by the VB, it has been found that at the time of submitting tenders for the year 2020-21 with regard to labour, cartage and transportation works in Ludhiana district, the lists of vehicles submitted by the above mentioned contractors were containing registration numbers of scooters/motorcycles/cars etc. which were not verified by concerned officers/officials of district tender committee due to criminal connivance with each other. He added that as per policy of the department it was mandatory for the committee to reject the technical bid for the above mentioned reason but the same was not done.

The spokesperson further revealed that the in gate passes pertaining to loading/unloading of food grains, the registration numbers of vehicles used for the carriage have been found to be of scooters/motorcycles/cars etc. as such vehicles cannot transport goods.

He added that details of the registration numbers of the said vehicles as well as the quantity of the commodity mentioned in these gate passes prima facie appears to be a case of fake reporting and embezzlement of the food grains mentioned in these gate passes.

He informed that on the basis of these gate passes the department officials have made payments to Telu Ram contractor, Jagroop Singh, owner/partner of Gurdas Ram & Company and Sandeep Bhatia contractor without verifying the same. 

In this regard, the VB has registered a case against the above mentioned private persons as well as department officials accused for submitting and accepting fake documents, conniving with each other for committing misappropriation and fake transportation of goods. Further investigation in this case is under progress, he said.