CHENNAI: Two years after the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) registered an FIR into alleged bribes paid by honchos of American IT major, Cognizant, to unknown state government officials, the agency is yet to get any major breakthrough in the case.
The details were revealed by the agency while responding to a petition filed before a special court in Chennai seeking a status update on the case and monitoring of the investigation. Recording the agency’s stand, the court closed the petition last week.
DVAC’s FIR was filed in March 2023 to probe alleged Rs 12 crore bribe paid by officials of Cognizant through its contractor, the construction major L&T, to officials of CMDA and the state housing department in the 2011-14 period for obtaining planning permits for their KITS campus in Sholinganallur. Five top executives of the two private firms and CTS itself were named as accused in the FIR which was filed after completion of a detailed inquiry.
The move followed US Department of Justice slapping criminal charges against two executives of Cognizant in 2019 over allegedly bribing TN government officials.
DVAC told the court the investigation is delayed as it was a “great challenge” for the investigating officer to ascertain the identity of the accused government officials based on the available documentary and oral evidence. The agency also admitted no final report had been filed yet. As many as 90 documents had been collected and 18 witnesses examined so far, DVAC added.
The agency was responding to the special court after Prit Pal Singh, a retired police official from New Delhi, filed a petition alleging that DVAC was not conducting a proper investigation to punish the accused. The probe was delayed and there was a risk of tampering of evidence, Singh claimed in his petition.
Rejecting his charges, DVAC said it was conducting a fair investigation and that there was no unnecessary delay. Questioning Singh’s locus standi to file the petition, DVAC clarified its probe was under way to “unearth the involvement of the government officials and the private persons in the alleged offences.”