CBI grills close aide of Yadav Singh; extract important info

A close aide of graft tainted former Noida Chief Engineer Yadav Singh was questioned by the CBI and is believed to have spilled the beans on the meticulous modus operandi adopted in alleged collection of bribe and its distribution among officials.
Ramendra, Assistant Project Engineer Noida, who directly reported to Singh, was called for questioning by CBI earlier this month, CBI sources said.
They said he had maintained a diary in which meticulous details of the alleged bribe collected from builders and contractors were maintained and how these funds were distributed among the officials of Noida.
The sources said he had also revealed the names of the officials who were entrusted with collecting bribe and its distribution through a chain of officials at various levels.

Yadav Singh is believed to be handling projects worth Rs 8000 crore in Noida and was also made Chief of the Yamuna Expressway project for a brief period by the state government.
The sources said it has emerged from the examination of Ramendra that about 5-10 per cent of the contract value bribe was extracted from the contractors. This bribe amount varied from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore and above, they said.

The alleged bribe was distributed among officers under Singh with the officers at the lowest level getting 0.05-0.10 per cent (five paise to 10 paise per Rs 100 of bribe) of the booty in which bribe amount remains about Rs 50 lakh or above.

He has also spilled the beans on the alleged bribe taken from contractors for bringing them under the financial eligibility criteria of the authority for which he was getting 0.10 per cent of total amount given by the contractor.
It is alleged that Yadav Singh was final authority in giving clearance to the inclusion of various contractors in the eligibility list.