CWG street lights: Four-year jail terms for four MCD officials

A Delhi court on Wednesday awarded four-year jail terms to four MCD officials convicted in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) street lights scam.

Those awarded the jail terms by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Brijesh Garg are Municipal Corporation of Delhi's then superintending engineer D.K. Sugan, then executive engineer O.P. Mahala, then accountant Raju V. and then tender clerk Gurcharan Singh.

On Monday, the court convicted the four officials along with Sweka Power Tech Engineers Pvt. Ltd. and its director J.P. Singh and managing director T.P. Singh.

The four MCD officials were held guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating under the Indian Penal Code, while the company and its directors were convicted for offences dealing with criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery.

While J.P. Singh was sentenced to four years in jail, T.P. Singh was awarded a six-year prison term.

This is the first CWG irregularities case decided by a court.

According to the CBI charge sheet filed on July 28, 2011, the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy for upgrading street lights in view of the Commonwealth Games in October 2010 and awarded the related contract to a private firm by manipulating tender documents.

This caused undue pecuniary loss of over Rs.1.42 crore to the government, it said.

The CBI also charge-sheeted Mehul Karnik, an employee of Philips India Pvt. Ltd., but he was later discharged.

The CBI registered a case for cheating, criminal conspiracy and other related charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.