ACB grills six engineers in PWD scam linked to Kejriwal kin

Delhi's Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on Saturday interrogated six engineers of the Public Works Department (PWD) in connection with an alleged corruption of Rs 10 crore involving Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's late brother-in-law Surender Kumar Bansal.

"We ave questioned six engineers of the PWD today (Saturday)," ACB chief Mukesh Kumar Meena told IANS. However, he refused to share details.

The ACB action follows filing of three cases on May 9 against Bansal and senior PWD officers in connection with the alleged corruption charge.

On May 9, the ACB had summoned the engineers to join the probe for their role in the scam.

The case involving Bansal, who died on May 7 in a Gurgaon hospital, relates to a drain project and improvement of kerbs from Shani Mandir to Bakoli village up to Drain No. 6 on the National Highway-44.

The FIRs do not mention Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Kejriwal's name, although complainant Rahul Sharma, Convener of NGO Road Anti-Corruption Organisation, had accused the Chief Minister of helping kin Bansal to get fake bills of around Rs 10 crore cleared.

The three FIRs were registered against Bansal and the PWD officers after it was discovered that the bills were cleared by different companies for different works.

"Bansal got the pending bills of around Rs 10 crore cleared due to Kejriwal's influence. He set up three companies -- Ranu Construction, Pawan Construction and Kamal Construction -- in whose names he got the bills cleared from the PWD," NGO's General Secretary Vilav Awasthi told IANS.

According to the officials, the ACB had questioned Sharma for a couple of hours on May 11. The ACB team also visited the PWD office to collect some files and documents related to the scam the same day.

The matter was being investigated by the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing, but it was later transferred to the ACB.

--IANS

aks/nir