Naresh Singh is alleged to have been taking bribes worth lakhs of rupees from the directors of bill collection company Aurum e-payments and Fresh Pay.
New Delhi: Taking major action in the Delhi Jal Board scam case, the ACB has arrested Jal Board's Joint Director Naresh Singh. This is the first arrest of a senior official of Delhi Jal Board in this scam. This arrest has been made in the water bill scam case of more than 20 crores. The ACB had last week arrested three owners and directors of two bill collection companies, Fresh Pay IT Solutions and Aurum E-payments. ACB was interrogating Joint Director Naresh Singh from 5 pm on Monday. He was arrested after questioning.
Allegations of the rigging of 20 crores
In fact, Joint Director Naresh Singh has been accused of rigging the Jalboard's water supply meter worth Rs 20 crore. At the time when this scam took place, Naresh Singh was posted as Director of Revenue in Delhi Jal Board. Naresh Singh is alleged to have been taking bribe worth lakhs of rupees from the directors of bill collection company Aurum e-payments and Fresh Pay.
The contract was awarded keeping the rules and regulations in mind
Also, Naresh Singh, being the Deputy Director of the Revenue Department, did not reconcile the bill payments coming through Aurum e-payments. He helped Fresh Pay to extend the contract for collection of bill payments from e-kiosks year after year till 2020 when the contract was extended for the first time in 2015. Keeping the rules and regulations in check, the contract for collecting bills every year was given to these companies only.
Madhur Verma, Joint Commissioner, ACB said that for the convenience of the people, the Delhi Jal board had given the contract to Fresh Pay IT Solution to pay the water bills through Nagar or Cheque. This company further handed over the contract to Aurum E Payment Private Limited Company. . The company had installed cash collection machines at various places in Delhi.
This contract lasted from the year 2012 to the month of August 2018, but Aurum E Payment Company collected the payment from the people till March 2020. In this way, about 20 crore rupees were collected, but this company did not transfer the amount to the accounts of the Delhi Jal Board. On receipt of the complaint, an inquiry was conducted and it was found that the officials of Delhi Jal Board and others were also involved in this embezzlement, besides the officials of Corporation Bank, which has now become Union Bank. A case was registered in this regard under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. It was told that the role of bank officials is also being investigated in this matter.