ACB books AAP's Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain in alleged classroom construction scam

The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) registered a case against senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and former Delhi ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, in connection with a massive ₹2,000 crore corruption scandal linked to the construction of classrooms during their tenure.

The case, which comes after formal approval under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, alleges that Sisodia and Jain were involved in serious irregularities surrounding the construction of over 12,000 classrooms under Delhi government projects.

At the time of the project, Manish Sisodia was the deputy chief minister of Delhi, while Satyendar Jain was the PWD minister.

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The scam involved awarding contracts at highly inflated rates with classrooms reportedly built at ₹24.86 lakh each, nearly five times the usual cost, the ACB added in a statement.

The project was allegedly awarded to contractors linked with AAP, PTI reported.

Projects were not completed in time

According to Head of Anti-Corruption Bureau Madhur Verma, during verification, it was revealed that in the meetings of the Expenditure Finance Committee for the financial year 2015-16, it was decided that the project would be completed by June 2016 at the sanctioned cost, without any scope for future cost escalations.

However, despite these directions, not a single work was completed within the prescribed period, and significant deviations and cost escalations were observed, ANI reported.

During the enquiry, it was revealed that the examination report of the Chief Technical Examiner, Central Vigilance Commission, in the instant matter was issued on February 17, 2020, with the approval of the competent authority; however, the report was suppressed for about 3 years.

The report of CTE/CVC raised serious violations of various clauses of the CPWD Works Manual 2014, GFR 2017, CVC guidelines, and other irregularities and also alleged that various decisions taken after the award of tenders were not by the laid guidelines of CVC and other manuals, which led to huge escalation of cost, resulting in financial loss.

Complaints were filed by these BJP leaders

The complaints from BJP Delhi spokesperson Harish Khurana, BJP leader Kapil Mishra, Neelkanth Bakshi, media relations department were received regarding corruption in the construction of approximately 12,748 school classrooms at an expenditure of Rs. 2,892 crore.

The lump sum cost for constructing one school room, as per the awarded tenders, is approximately Rs. 24.86 lakh per room, whereas such rooms could ordinarily be constructed in Delhi for around Rs. 5 lakh per room.