New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS) Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva on Monday welcomed the filing of a charge sheet by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against AAP leader and former Delhi Water Minister Satyendar Jain and then Delhi Jal Board CEO Udit Prakash in a STP scam.

The charges relate to a scam of over Rs 17.70 crore committed in the name of modernising 10 STPs of the DJB during the tenure of the Arvind Kejriwal government, said Sachdeva.

He said that with the filing of this charge sheet against Jain and others in the STP scam, there is renewed hope that the accused in this major scam under the Kejriwal government will be punished soon.

Sachdeva further said that the case and the charge sheet filed in it are extremely strong because, in this Rs 17.70 crore embezzlement case related to the DJB, assets worth Rs 15.36 crore belonging to Jain and other accused have been attached, and the court has been duly informed.

Earlier, the ED said that charges have been filed against Jain and 13 others in a case involving the award of four tenders related to Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) in exchange for a Rs 6.73 crore bribe.

The ED, through a provisional attachment order dated December 4, also provisionally attached movable and immovable properties amounting to Rs 15.36 crore of the various persons connected to the money laundering case that involves Proceeds of Crime (PoC) totalling Rs 17.70 crore.

The federal probe agency started the investigation based on an FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), GNCTD, New Delhi, against Euroteck Environmental Pvt Ltd (EEPL) and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, alleging a scam in Delhi Jal Board in the name of augmentation and upgradation of existing 10 STPs at Pappankalan and Nilothi (Package 1), Najafgarh and Keshopur (Package 2), Coronation Pillar, Narela and Rohini (Package 3), and Kondli (Package 4).

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Delhi Zonal Office, filed a Prosecution Complaint against Jain, Udit Prakash Rai (then CEO, Delhi Jal Board), Ajay Gupta (then Member, Delhi Jal Board), Satish Chandra Vashishth (then Chief Engineer, Delhi Jal Board), and other private persons/entities under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The ED investigation revealed that Rajakumar Kurra, Managing Director of EEPL, had manipulated the terms and conditions of the DJB tender through officials of DJB and private persons, Nagendra Yadav and others.

Kurra made the tender restrictive to the usage of ‘IFAS technology with fixed media’ only and thereby enabling EEPL to become the sole supplier of technology in the tender.

The Integrated Fixed-Film Activated Sludge (IFAS) technology with fixed media combines traditional suspended-growth activated sludge with attached-growth biofilm media in one reactor, adding extra surface area for microbes to grow, boosting biomass without increasing sludge volume, and allowing treatment plants to increase capacity.

–IANS

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