CBI books eight engineers in Gomti River Front case

A week after the Centre entrusted the CBI with the probe into the alleged irregularites in the Rs 1,500-crore Gomti River Front project, the agency said on Friday that it had booked eight engineers in the case.

Those booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday are the then Chief Engineers Gulesh Chandra, S.N. Sharma and Qazim Ali, then Superintending Engineers Shiv Mangal Yadav, Akhil Raman, Kamaleshwar Singh, Roop Singh Yadav and Executive Engineer Surendra Yadav, a CBI official told IANS.

Gulesh Chandra, Shiv Mangal Yadav, Akhil Raman and Roop Singh Yadav have since retired.

On July 20, the Uttar Pradesh government sought a CBI probe into the project, the cost of which was initially pegged at Rs 656 crore but revised later to Rs 1,513 crore.

The Uttar Pradesh government had appointed Allahabad High Court's retired Justice Alok Singh to probe the matter. Justice Singh submitted an exhaustive report in June.

Justice Singh allegedly found large-scale irregularities and financial misappropriation in the project and also questioned the way officials involved in the project had functioned.

A committee was later formed, comprising Urban Development Minister Suresh Khanna, Revenue Board Chairman Praveer Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Anoop Chandra Pandey and then Principal Secretary (Law) Ranganath Pandey to fix responsibility.

The Centre referred the matter to the CBI on November 24.

--IANS

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