NEW DELHI: The CBI has recovered over nine kilogram gold in jewellery and bars along with Rs 1.1 crore in cash during its countrywide searches at 22 locations in connection with the NHAI corruption case, officials said Sunday.
Officials said the agency had booked nine top officials of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) including general managers, project directors, managers and 13 others including private persons for allegedly receiving monthly payoffs during 2008-10 in three highway projects.
"During the year 2008-2010, the projects Surat-Hazira Port section of NH-06, Kishangarh-Ajmer-Beawar section of NH-08 and Varanasi-Aurangabad section of NH-02 were awarded by NHAI to the consortium of private companies and accordingly, special purpose vehicles were formed for execution of these three projects," CBI Spokesperson RC Joshi said.
It was alleged that during execution of these projects, the said NHAI Officers accepted money from private companies, he said.
The payments were facilitated by sub-contractors of the said private company who falsified their account books, he said.
The CBI was conducting a preliminary enquiry into the allegations since 2018 and prima facie found illicit payments were being made to the officers, he said.
The report indicated alleged corruption in the three highway projects awarded to the consortium Isolux Corsan India Engineering and Construction Pvt Ltd (ICIECPL) - which is currently facing liquidation -- and Soma Enterprises, the CBI said.
The biggest recovery of 5.5 kg of gold jewellery was made from Suraj Prakash who was then project director of Varanasi-Aurangabad section, sources said.
The 22 locations searched included Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, they said.
The raids were made at the residential/office premises of the accused across these locations.
The searches led to recovery of total cash of about Rs 1.1 crore, fixed deposit receipts worth Rs 49.1 lakh, gold and jewellery worth Rs 4.5 crore, along with certain incriminating documents, Joshi said.
Multiple property documents in the name of NHAI officers were also found, he said.L.P. Padhy, General Manager, CK Sinha, GM (Tech), and Project Director, Vibhav Mittal GM (Tech) and Project Director, D.P. Soni, Project Director, Anil Kumar Jain, Manager (Technical), S.K. Gupta, Project Director, Suraj Prakash, then Project Director, K.M. Sharma, then Manager (Technical), Neeraj Gaur, then Manager (Technical) - all employed with the NHAI then - have been booked by the CBI in the case, Joshi said.
The probe agency also booked several top officials employed then with the ICIECPL -- the consortium to which projects were given.
Guillemot Garcia Moliz, then CFO, Jose Luis Murillo Esteban, then Chief General Manager (Construction), Eva Garrido Roda, then Project Administration Manager (Cost Controller-Surat), Manuel Merino Gomez, then Dy.
Project Head, Gustavo Munoz Lopez, then Head-Administration, Javier Hidalgo, then Deputy Project Manager and Alberto Lorenzo, Cost Controller have also been named in the FIR among others, the official said.