The CBI has registered a corruption case against a former chairman-cum-managing director of Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited, Avijit Ghosh. File

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a corruption case against a former chairman-cum-managing director of Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) Limited, Avijit Ghosh, his two junior colleagues and others.

The other named accused have been identified as the then branch manager Naveen Kumar Singh and then HEC (Ranch) chief of business development, Aswini Kumar Dash.

The First Information Report has been instituted based on the findings a preliminary enquiry initiated against Mr. Ghosh and others to probe the allegation that in 2015-2019 they entered into a criminal conspiracy with CNIITMASH, a joint stock company of Russia, with the intention to cheat government exchequer by floating manipulated Expression of Interest (EoI).

In November 2014, the Centre had published a notification on “Scheme of Enhancement of Competitiveness in the Indian Capital Goods Sector”, which was aimed at boosting the national economy by making the Indian Capital Goods Sector globally competitive. As per the scheme, the government had to facilitate grant-in-aid (not exceeding 80% of the project cost) to the industries which would form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) as not-for-profit companies or societies or trust for setting up of Common Engineering Facility Centre.

About a year later, HEC floated an EoI for attracting international reputed firms or research institutes for technological collaboration/transfer so that most of the equipment could be manufactured and commissioned indigenously by it. Creating a centre of excellence was also a part of the work. Within days, the EoI was amended and the clause “major shareholding of respective government” was removed and the date for the tender was extended by one week.

The CBI found that before finalising the EoI in November 2015, Mr. Ghosh had sent a proposal to the Heavy Industries Ministry for setting up a centre of excellence for skill development with a consultation fee of ₹30 crore on the budgetary offer of ₹43 crore from CNIITMASH. However, the offer against the EOI was sent by CNIITMASH later.

According to the agency, Mr. Ghosh and other HEC officials, including Mr. Singh, visited Russia and signed the non-commercial agreement on December 24, 2015, which was only approved on February 2, 2016, by the tender evaluation committee. As alleged, Mr. Ghosh did not inform the Ministry about the ongoing EOI/tender process at the HEC. It was an alleged prima facie violation of the tender process.

The CBI found several other alleged irregularities, including payments made during the tenure of the officials in question.