Corruption case: Court orders framing of charges against five

A Delhi court has ordered framing of charges against two engineers of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and three others, including a private company, for allegedly conspiring in award of a contract to the firm for renovation of two stadiums for 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain ordered framing of charges against R S Thakur, the then Superintending Engineer of NDMC, V K Gulati, the then Executive Engineer of NDMC, private firm M/s Raja Aederi Consultants Pvt Ltd along with its Chairman Raja Aederi and its Director Uday Shankar Bhatt.
The court said that prima facie, charge under section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC was made out against all the accused while charges under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act were made out against Thakur and Gulati.

It also said that prima facie charge of cheating under the IPC was also made out against the private company and its two officials.
"Thus prima facie a case u/s 120 B IPC is made out against all the accused persons, in addition offence u/s 13(2) r/w section 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act is also made out against accused no. 1 R S Thakur and accused no. 2 V K Gulati.
"They also dishonestly induced the department to award the contract to M/s Raja Aederi Consultants Pvt Ltd i.E. accused no. 5 knowing fully well that accused no. 5 M/s Raja Aederi Consultants Pvt Ltd does not possess the requisite qualification for the same," the court said.

According to CBI, the government servants had abused their official position and had conspired with Raja Aederi and Bhatt in award of architectural consultancy contract valuing Rs 30 crore pertaining to the upgradation and renovation of Shivaji Stadium and Talkatora Stadium here.
The court, in its order, observed that the accused caused wrongful loss to the department by awarding the contract to the firm.
"Thereby, not only causing wrongful gain to accused no. 5 M/s Raja Aederi Consultants Pvt Ltd but also wrongful loss to the department. Prima facie case u/s 420 (cheating) IPC is also made out against accused no. 3 Raja Aederi, accused no.4 Uday Shankar Bhatt and accused no. 5 M/s Raja Aederi Consultants Pvt Ltd," it said and fixed the case for framing of charges on July 3.