Plea against loss caused by BSNL officials: HC for CBI's reply

CBI was today asked by Delhi High Court to respond to a plea seeking investigation in a matter in which BSNL officials allegedly caused loss of about Rs 1,000 crore to the exchequer by releasing unauthorised payment to the subsidiary of a Chinese firm by fabricating documents.
The court's direction came on a petition which alleged that officials of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) had connived with M/s ZTE Telecom India Pvt Ltd, a Chinese contractor, and forged official records of BSNL so that "undue payments" of about Rs 1,000 crore could be released to the firm.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal issued notice to CBI and asked it to file its response in four weeks. The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on April 26.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO Telecom Watchdog, said they had filed a complaint on the issue on March 11 last year before CBI but the agency has not taken any action. The petitioner has sought a direction to CBI to investigate the complaint in a time-bound manner.
The plea alleged that in its tender, BSNL had prescribed
eight milestones for releasing payments, according to which only 50 per cent payment was payable upto delivery stage and the balance to be released in stages on installation and commissioning.

"During implementation of the project, for unknown reasons, BSNL kept releasing purchase orders without caring for demand in the field. As a result, a huge quantum of the ordered material started piling-up at M/s ZTE's stores for which BSNL had already paid 50 per cent of the equipment cost including customs duty as per the tender clauses," it alleged.

The plea claimed that certain officials of BSNL and ZTE entered into a conspiracy to release undue payment of 95.10 per cent "illegitimately for all such uninstalled equipment".
It alleged that official documents were fabricated to release payment of 95.10 per cent "illegitimately" to M/s ZTE.
"It is apparent that the respondent (CBI) is not taking any action on the complaint filed by the petitioner for some unknown reasons even in such a serious matter where hundreds of crores of rupees have been released illegitimately in criminal conspiracy between officials of BSNL and a Chinese contractor by forging documents in a contract worth Rs 4,204.85 crore," the petitioner alleged.