Korba: A Congress MLA and his partner in a construction firm have been booked for allegedly withdrawing government funds to the tune of over Rs 10 crore through fake invoices in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, police said on Wednesday.
"The case was registered last evening against Congress MLA from Korba seat, Jaisingh Agrawal and the Director of M/s BB Verma and Company, Naresh Verma in connection with the alleged fake bills scam," Balco Station House Officer (SHO) Vivek Sharma said, adding that no arrest is made so far.
In 2006, M/s BB Verma and Company, run by Naresh in partnership with the MLA, had won a PWD contract for construction of eight roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) in Korba. However, they allegedly received payments through counterfeit bills of coal tar emulsion transportation, the SHO said.
The incident came to light when a local RTI activist, Amar Agrawal last month filed a petition in a court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Anish Dubey seeking to register a case against the Congress leader and his company for fraud and forgery.
"Following the directives of court last week, an FIR was registered against the duo under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 477 and others of IPC for cheating and forgery," Sharma said.
He said the court had asked for a detailed report in this connection within three months and next hearing of the case has been scheduled to October 31, 2014.
The activist had accused the second-time Congress MLA from Korba and others of defrauding the exchequer, citing details of payments which he claims were accessed under the Right to Information Act.
"As per the documents, M/s BB Verma and Company was allotted the contract of construction of roads worth Rs 10.77 crore on January 16, 2006," Agrawal had said.
"In connection with these work, the firm had received the payments of Rs 10,33,01,149 through 21 bills of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and 19 bills of Hindustan Colas Limited (HinCol) Company," he said.
Interestingly, registration numbers of vehicles, mentioned in the bills for the transportation of coal tar emulsion, founds to be the numbers of motorcycles and other two-wheelers. It clearly indicates foul play in receiving payments," he had alleged.
