New Delhi: A Delhi court dismissed former Deputy Controller of Accounts at Central Procurement Agency (CPA), Neeraj Chopra ’s regular bail plea, observing that his alleged role in procurement irregularities CPA extended from approving tenders to processing payments, and that his actions, along with those of other accused, allegedly caused a wrongful loss of Rs 842 crore to the Delhi govt, “almost paralysing” its health care institutes.
“The material filed along with the chargesheet indicates his active participation, facilitation, movement of the files and processing of bills,” the judge observed. Their actions, the court said, involved “criminal connivance” with other accused, embezzlement of govt property, deliberate destruction of evidence and misuse of official positions to influence colleagues and cheat other bidders. The court also noted that the alleged irregularities should have raised suspicion while recommending purchase orders for “selective entities” and approving bills. Such conduct had allegedly caused losses of “several hundred of crores” to the state exchequer, it observed.
Special Judge Vidya Prakash noted that Chopra was allegedly involved at both the procurement approval and financial stages. The judge observed that the accused allegedly violated General Financial Rules and CVC guidelines “just to cause illegal loss to the Govt. exchequer, and illegal gain to themselves.
“Mere filing of the charge-sheet does not, by itself, entitle the applicant/accused to be enlarged on bail,” the court held, adding that his detention was necessary for a “fair and unhindered investigation”. Rejecting the argument that filing of the chargesheet entitled Chopra to bail, the judge noted that further investigation was continuing into the financial trail, connected entities, electronic evidence and the role of co-accused Rajiv Kumar and others.