New Delhi, January 2
Delhi’s vigilance department has found “lacunae and discrepancies” in the CBI’s closure report in a graft case against minister Satyendar Jain and has concluded that it requires further investigation, officials said today.
The case pertains to hiring a creative team for the PWD when Jain was holding the portfolio. The officials, while sharing the details of the development, said an assistant director of the vigilance department had filed a written request before a CBI special court, seeking two months’ time to study the “lacunae and discrepancies” in the central probe agency’s closure report in the case to file an appropriate protest petition. The official, in its submission to the court, had said the issues raised by the department might require further investigation by the agency, they said.
The court has now granted time till January 31, with a direction that the final protest petition must be filed under the signature of either the secretary or the deputy secretary of the vigilance department, they said. The CBI had in April last year closed the case against Jain and others related to alleged corruption in hiring a creative team for the department after a four-year-long investigation during which it failed to gather enough evidence to prosecute the accused persons, the officials said.
The CBI registered the case in May 2018 on a reference from the office of the Delhi L-G to investigate the allegations of irregularities in awarding a tender to a private firm for hiring a creative team for PWD projects on the basis of a report from the vigilance department.