Additional Dgp Held On Graft Charge In Tn

Tamil Nadu police yesterday arrested E Hariharane, additional director-general of police and director of social justice, on a corruption charge involving an alleged fraud of Rs 22.7 lakh.

He has been remanded to judicial custody till January 17. Hariharane is the first IPS officer to be held on corruption charges since the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) regime took over. Five IAS officers have been arrested so far. Crime Branch-CID officials, who took Harihar- ane into custody at 6.20 am, produced him at noon at principal sessions judge A Ramamoorth's residence, who remanded him to judicial custody and recommended special facilities in jail for him. Hariharan has been charged with committing fraud on government funds in awarding supply orders to a private firm for fabrication of fire crash tenders in 1989-90, when he was director of the state fire services.

 

The judge posted his bail application for hearing today and ordered issue of notice to the city public prosecutor.

According to the remand report, Hariharane, as director of fire services, had invited open tenders for fabrication of five combined foam and water crash tenders with a pumping capacity of 3,200 litres per minute (LPM).

Among the 10 companies which gave their quotations, he allegedly picked only two - Nisarzs and Company, Chennai, and Standard Castings Company Ltd, New Delhi - for final consideration, without assigning any reason for rejecting the other eight.

Of these, he had awarded the contract to Nisarzs, stating that the Chennai-based company's work could be supervised easily, even though it had quoted the highest price of Rs 8.79 lakh per crash tender.

The report said that the company, which was only engaged in supplying uniforms, caps and buckets to the fire department and had no factory or workshop here, had got the fabrication work done by Wadia body builders, Ahmedabad, at a lower price.

The government had allotted only Rs 35.4 lakh for the purchase of seven crash tenders, but he had spent Rs 60.09 lakh for five. The government's prior sanction was not taken for the excess expenditure and for diversion of funds allotted for buying a hydraulic platform, the remand report said.

Standard Castings had quoted Rs 4.25 lakh per tender, and if this had been accepted, Rs 22.7 lakh could have been saved by the government, the report said.