CSEB official among 3 suspended in power scam

An executive engineer and two other employees of Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board (CSEB) were suspended in connection with an alleged Rs 73 lakh financial scam in shifting of power meters in Jashpur district last year.
Executive Engineer VS Tiwari, and assistant grade-III clerks Ranjan Sidar and Vinay Kanwar, posted in Jashpur, were suspended yesterday after a preliminary probe into the scam, Superintending Engineer (CSEB) Raigarh Circle Chandrashekhar Singh said today.
The irregularities came to light during the internal audit for 2012-13 of the department.
Three private contractors - Pankaj Kera, Raghvendra Jaiswal and Amit Jaiswal - had received payment of Rs 73 lakh from government exchequer through counterfeit bills by allegedly hacking the login password of Tiwari, he said.

As per the inspection report, the contractors issued the work order allegedly using the official login ID of Tiwari for shifting of meters in Jashpur. They later received the payment of Rs 73 lakh for shifting of 7,000 meters through 36 fake bills.
The bills also bore forged signatures of Tiwari and other senior officials, he said.
Contractor Kera received payment of Rs 43,99,820 from Jashpur sub-division, Raghvendra received Rs 4,88,150 from Kotba subdivision and Amit got Rs 24 lakh from Patthalgaon region, Singh said.
Earlier, the department had lodged cases in Jashpur against the three contractors who are yet to be arrested, he said.