Kishore Yerme issued notices to contractors under the pretext of asking money as compensation for shoddy construction Dhananjay Khatri
BMC's executive engineer Kishore Yerme (51), who was arrested by the Azad Maidan police on Monday night on the suspicion of his alleged involvement in the road scam, was produced before a local court on Tuesday. He was remanded in police custody till July 30. Yerme is the 26th person to be arrested in the case.
According to the police, Yerme, who was designated as the executive engineer for the roads departments in the western suburbs division, allegedly issued notices to the contractors M/s J Kumar-KR Construction (JV) under the pretext of asking money from them as compensation for the shoddy construction of roads.
Out of a total of 34 roads which were supposed to be repaired, Yerme was to supervise the work of Bapu Bagve Road and NL Complex Road. After an inspection by BMC officials, the report claimed that the construction done on the roads were irregular and not as per the expected quality. Monetarily, malpractice of Rs90 lakh was unearthed during the inspection, police claimed. As an executive engineer of BMC, it was Yerme's duty to oversee the work and ensure that the it was done as per the requirement.
After the irregularities were found, chief engineer Manohar Pawar lodged a complaint with Azad Maidan police on April 27.
"Probe revealed that Yerme was involved in the scam and he deliberately neglected the work assigned to him by the BMC. Yerme was suspended on July 19. While investigating the matter, the police arrested Yerme on the grounds that while the inquiry was going on, Yerme issued notices to the contracting firms, and on the pretext of compensation, he demanded money from the contractors," said a police officer.
While seeking Yerme's police custody, prosecution lawyer Rajendra Suryawanshi argued, "In order to make maximum money from the funds allocated by BMC for repair works and also to provide financial benefit to the contractors concerned, the accused has deliberately neglected the construction work. During police investigation, issuing such notices without permission of the senior officials itself shows that the accused is involved in a conspiracy."
However, defence counsel Hemant Ingle argued, "As a responsible engineer of BMC, Yerme has rightfully asked for money from the contractors who are the real culprits. No illegal means has been used for asking money as it was not meant for Yerme's personal use but it was a recovery for the shoddy works."
After hearing both the sides, the court sent Yerme to police custody.
Yerme did not seek permission to issue notices
Yerme did not seek any prior permission from senior divisional engineers or officials to issue the notices on May 30 and asked for recovery money as the repair works assigned to them were not done as per the expected design and the quality of the materials used for the construction was also not up to the mark, police alleged
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