CBI FILES CASE AGAINST MTNL OFFICIALS

CBI against MTNL corruptionCentral Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) rage against corruption continues as it filed an FIR on Wednesday against several accused persons, former/serving Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for the alleged award of a broadcast network contract at an exorbitant rate of Rs. 570.12 crore to a Noida-based private firm, as a probe into the alleged irregularities of conduct during the Common Wealth Games (CWG), 2010.

According to CBI’s spokesperson, Dharini Mishra, the accused MTNL officials had allegedly manipulated the contract’s tendering process in such a manner so as to make them tailor made for the Noida-based firm, HCL Infosystems which deals with optical fibre transmission.

According to a CBI source the broadcasting requirements for the CWG were very limited as it was based on optical fibre transmission for which an estimate of approximately Rs,31.43 crore was prepared.

The accused person included in their proposal Broadcast Video Network which hiked the expenditure by around Rs. 380.04 crores which lead to a huge loss to the government exchequer and wrongful gain to the Noida-based private company.

The CBI raided 10 places in Delhi, Noida and Jaipur as part of its probe after registering the FIR.

Report by Sumit