The Anti-Corruption Branch in Delhi, on Thursday arrested Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s nephew, Vinay Bansal, in a case of submission of fake bills to the Delhi Public Works Department (PWD). The bills had been submitted in relation to the construction of a drain. The drain was supposed to be built along the National Highway 44.
In January 2017, whistle-blower Rahul Sharma had alleged that Vinay Bansal and his father (deceased) Surender Bansal, who is Delhi CM Kejriwal’s brother-in-law, had submitted fake bills under their company M/S Renu Construction, and had taken ₹3.10 crore from the PWD for building the drain. The fake bills submitted pertained to purchases made for steel from a Sonipat-based company M/S Mahadev Impex.
However, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) during an internal inquiry found that no such firm actually existed. It was also revealed that the bills carried no information on the make or brand of the cement used, and except steel, there was no mention or record of any other materials used.
The case against Vinay Bansal is one of the three filed in the alleged ₹10 crore PWD scam that the Anti-Corruption Branch has been investigating since January 2017. According to the CPWD, the internal quality assurance team of the Delhi PWD also did not conduct any inspection of the work done on this drain. At many point in the drain, the inspection ultimately done by the CPWD revealed that the compressive strength was unsatisfactory and the cement content was abnormally high.
Senior PWD officials have remained tight-lipped about the involvement of Delhi PWD minister Satyendar Jain, who allegedly chose to overlook the faulty bills. According to an official within the department, “Despite a four-month delay, the firm (Bansal’s) was not fined. Most bills were signed by Vinay Bansal, including the drawings of the drain before the construction.”
The CPWD also found out during its inspection that Bansal’s firm had been allowed to extend the project deadline without being levied a compensation of ₹20,000 per day, as was mentioned in an agreement between the firm and the Delhi PWD.
