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CBI raids on ex-finance ministry official over $1 million bribe

The 62-year-old retired finance ministry official, who also happened to be a Punjab cadre IAS officer of batch 1975, was being probed after the CBI took cognisance of reports related to alleged irregularities in a joint venture between Norwegian fertiliser firm Yara and India's Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (Kribhco) in 2007.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday carried out multiple raids at the residence and offices of a retired finance ministry (FinMin) official who is allegedly involved in a case of receiving kickbacks worth $ 1 million from a Norwegian company. Senior officials of CBI said that the probe agency has found incriminating evidence against the accused, identified as Jivtesh Singh Maini and his son Gurpreetesh Singh while raiding their posh Sainik Farm residence. A couple of other offices, including the one in Lajpat Nagar area of South Delhi and other in Chandigarh, were also raided by the CBI, after an FIR filed on FIR named the father-son duo and along with their wives.

"The FIR was lodged today itself and we carried the coordinated raids at three places. Investigating officers have recovered incriminating evidence from the laptop and other electronic devices of the accused persons," said a CBI official. The accused were booked under section 9 (Taking gratification, for exercise of personal influence with public servant) 10 (punishment for abetment) and section 120 (B) of the India Penal Code.

The 62-year-old retired finance ministry official, who also happened to be a Punjab cadre IAS officer of batch 1975, was being probed after the CBI took cognisance of reports related to alleged irregularities in a joint venture between Norwegian fertiliser firm Yara and India's Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (Kribhco) in 2007.

According to officials at the CBI, Maini and his son had received payoff of $1 million.

"Gurpreetesh had been promised $3 million to facilitate the joint venture with Kribhco and the amount was to be paid in installments of $1 million per year. The Norwegian giant was interested in establishing chemical fertiliser units at various locations in India," the CBI official added.

The agency initiated the probe on the basis of Yara's statements, as well as Norwegian investigation and prosecution agency Okokrim both of whom named the father-son as prime suspects in the case. Yara had then claimed that some of its senior managers had routed $1 million into an offshore account operated on behalf of Gurpreetesh Singh Maini and his father, the then finance ministry additional secretary and Kribhco board member Jivtesh Singh Maini. Yara was fined $48.3 million for paying bribes to the Kribhco project in India, which later couldn't be completed.

"Members of Yara's senior management team, on behalf of Yara, offered to make a deal with Gurpreetesh Singh Maini, the son of Dr Jivtesh Singh Maini. Dr Maini was at that time additional secretary and financial advisor in the ministry of chemicals & fertilizers and a member of the board of Kribhco. Our acknowledgment of guilt and acceptance of a fine reflect that the Okokrim findings are in line with those of our own investigation. The penalty is severe, but we accept it," Yara had said in a statement.

"Yara had informed that the money was transferred into an account in Hong Kong belonging to a company whose beneficiaries were the spouses of the father-son duo," the CBI official concluded.

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