NEW DELHI: The CBI booked five officials, including an under secretary, in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), on corruption charges and carried out searches at 11 places today.
The DoPT is the CBI's nodal department.
Under Secretary Sanjay Mehta, section officers Hemant and Vijay Pal and assistant section officers RK Arora and Mahendra Singh -- all belonging to the training division of the DoPT -- have been booked for alleged irregularities in the payment of over Rs 18 lakh, officials said.
The CBI also booked another person, Ashok, and private vendors Institute of Public Sciences, Institute of Public Administration, Kavita Ahluwalia, Kapil Book Store and Sahej Trading Corporation.
The action was taken on a complaint from V K Sinha, DoPT Director (Training), who alleged an internal probe found that out of total 67 payments of Rs 9.21 crore during 2017-18, eight bills of Rs 18.17 lakh were issued fraudulently in favour of the five vendors, they said.
"It is also mentioned in the report that during random checking of sanction orders pertaining to the financial year 2016-17, three sanction orders issued by TFA Section found to be issued fraudulently without the approval of the competent authority," it said.
The DoPT said its preliminary enquiry indicates prima facie involvement of training department officials who have been subsequently named in the CBI FIR.
Mehta was placed under suspension after irregularities were found in payments, they said.