LUCKNOW: The former advisor to the ambitious Gomti River Front Project has been denied anticipatory bail by the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court over accusations of committing corruption and large-scale irregularities in the implementation of the project.
The single-judge bench, comprising Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh, passed the order denying anticipatory bail to project advisor Badri Shreshta last week. The order was uploaded on Monday. The court refused anticipatory bail to the project advisor in the wake of his role, evidence available against him and the magnitude of the corruption committed in the project.
Notably, the Gomti River Front Development Project was conceptualized and commenced during the Akhilesh Yadav regime (2012-17). The motive of the project was the beautification and landscaping of the banks along river Gomti in the state capital Lucknow and also channelizing the river water by constructing a diaphragm wall and intercepting drains on both banks.
Passing the order, Justice Singh said: "While granting bail the court has to keep in mind the nature of accusations, magnitude and gravity of offence along with the evidence supporting the nature of accusations."
Justice Singh added that in the case of economic offences, deep-rooted conspiracies and loss of huge public funds needed to be viewed seriously as they were the grave offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole.
After coming to power in 2017, the Yogi government ordered the first probe into alleged irregularities in Gomti Riverfront Project and got an FIR lodged against several people, including senior officials of the irrigation department on June 19, 2017. Later, the probe was handed over to the CBI.
The CBI probe initially confirmed that a budget of Rs 1,513 crore was sanctioned for the project and around Rs 1,437 crore (95 per cent of the total budget) was spent without completing even 60 per cent of the project work. Multiple anomalies surfaced in the expenditure.
Besides, the company that was allotted work of the riverfront beautification was a defaulter. The Enforcement Directorate had also initiated a probe under the Money Laundering Act.
On February 17, 2021, the had CBI filed a charge sheet in the CBI court in Lucknow against six people, including two directors of the firm that was allotted the work of river channelisation, and subsequently, two irrigation engineers in Lucknow were arrested.
Accused-appellant Badri Shreshtha was one of the conspirators in the CBI chargesheet. He had got the execution work of the channelization of water to M/s KK Spun Pipes Private Limited which was not even empanelled with the State Irrigation department. Further, against an already high cost of execution worth Rs 285.69 crore quoted by M/s KK Spun Pipe Private Limited, it was paid Rs 337.32 crore by the dispensation without obtaining any approval for cost escalation by the state cabinet.
The accused is also charged with pooling the tender for securing execution work for the said firm on the basis of forged documents.