On Wednesday, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) conducted a thorough investigation at the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters. This operation focused on alleged tender and contract scams. During the investigation, officials seized various documents related to tenders, payments, firm registrations, and development projects within the civic body. The SIT’s actions are part of a broader inquiry into corruption in municipal operations.
The SIT, led by additional commissioner of police Archana Singh , reached KMC headquarters around 11.30 am and remained there till 5 pm. The municipal commissioner has cancelled tenders worth around Rs 100 crore. He had also announced the constitution of the SIT comprising ADCP Archana Singh, ACP Swarup Nagar Jyoti, Fazalganj Inspector Dhananjay Pandey and Swarup Nagar Inspector Devendra Singh.
The team inspected files related to payments and registration of firms at the office of chief engineer SFA Zaidi and collected documents pertaining to the five firms named in the cases. The municipal commissioner had lodged six separate FIRs against seven firms in connection with the alleged tender racket. The police have arrested contractors Rajjan Bajpai and Sandeep Jain, while alleged kingpin Govind Sharma of Agra is absconding. Sharma is alleged to have secured the maximum number of contracts in the racket. Five FIRs were registered on complaints of the municipal commissioner, while one was lodged on the complaint of contractor Sunny Singh.
Police Commissioner Raghubir Lal had disclosed details of the FIRs and the police action at a media conference on Tuesday.
Officials said further action would be taken against those found guilty after completion of the investigation. The team questioned chief engineer SFA Zaidi, executive engineers Diwakar Bhaskar and RK Singh and collected documents from engineering department employees Bhupendra Singh and Ajay Pandey. Video statements of the officials who had lodged FIRs were also recorded. The SIT obtained signatures of officials on the prescribed proforma regarding their cooperation in the investigation.