Former J&K Governor Satyapal Malik Questioned For 5 Hours By CBI In J&K Insurance 'Scam'
According to officials, the exercise lasted over five hours and included multiple questions concerning the assertions he made in his interviews filed with the CBI last year.
The CBI questioned former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik for over five hours Friday in connection with its investigation into the alleged insurance scam in the Union Territory, which came to light following his assertion that he was given payments to clear relevant papers, according to authorities, news agency PTI reported. A CBI team came to Malik's Som Vihar apartment in the R K Puram district of the national capital about 11.45 a.m. to seek clarity on his assertions, they added.
According to officials, the exercise lasted over five hours and included multiple questions concerning the assertions he made in his interviews filed with the CBI last year.
The CBI has questioned Malik, who has served as governor of many states, for the second time in seven months. Officials have underlined that Malik is neither an accused or a suspect in the investigation so far. His comment was made in October of last year, after completing his governorships in Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa, and Meghalaya.
After CBI's latest notice, Malik had tweeted: "I have exposed the sins of some people by speaking the truth. Maybe that's why I have been called. I am the son of a farmer, I will not panic. I stand by the truth."
The CBI filed two FIRs in connection with Malik's claims of corruption in bidding for a group medical insurance programme for government employees and civil work worth Rs 2,200 crore for the Kiru hydroelectric power project in Jammu and Kashmir.
Malik said he was given a Rs 300 crore payment to clear two files during his stint as governor of Jammu and Kashmir from August 23, 2018, to October 30, 2019. In its FIR, the agency named Reliance General Insurance and Trinity Re-Insurance Brokers Limited as defendants in relation to the medical insurance programme for Jammu and Kashmir government employees, which was purportedly approved by Malik during a state administrative council meeting on August 31, 2018. The idea was later abandoned.
"Unknown officials of the finance department of the government of Jammu and Kashmir, by abusing their official positions in a conspiracy and connivance with Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited, Reliance General Insurance Company Limited and other unknown public servants and private persons, have committed the offences of criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct," one of the FIRs allege.
They caused "pecuniary advantage to themselves and wrongful loss to the state exchequer during the period 2017 and 2018 and thereby, in this manner, cheated the government of Jammu and Kashmir", it further alleges.
The CBI said that the e-tendering procedures were not followed in the second FIR regarding suspected irregularities in the awarding of contracts for the civil work package of the Kiru hydroelectric power project.
"The case was registered on allegations of malpractices in the award of the contract worth Rs 2,200 crore (approximately) of civil works of the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) to a private company in the year 2019," it has said.
The central investigating agency has charged former Chenab Valley Power Projects (Private) Limited chairman Navin Kumar Chaudhary, former managing director M. S. Babu, former directors M. K. Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra, and Patel Engineering Limited.
"Though a decision was taken in the 47th board meeting of CVPPL (Chenab Valley Power Projects Limited) for re-tender through e-tendering with the reverse auction after the cancellation of the ongoing tendering process, the same was not implemented (as per the decision taken in the 48th board meeting) and the tender was finally awarded to Patel Engineering Limited," the FIR alleged.
(With Inputs From PTI)
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