Chief Minister Hemant Soren has given permission to conduct probe against four officials – former Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA) director Niranjan Kumar (Additional Charge- Managing Director, Jharkhand Urja Vikas Nigam Limited), the then Project Director of JREDA Arvind Kumar, Baldev Prasad, Shri Ram Singh, Electrical Executive Engineer of TVNL – on charges of corruption. Suggestions including registering case of corruption charges by misuse of position is part of the approved proposal for investigation.
Under these suggestions, the investigators will provide all accused officials full opportunity to present their case in the course of investigation and will also consider the facts given by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the report of the committee constituted by the Department of Energy. Niranjan Kumar is originally an officer of the Indian Post and TC Accounts and Finance Service, who was on deputation to the Government of Jharkhand. He has been accused of illegally withdrawing his salary and paying about 170 crores from various government accounts. Apart from this, he is accused of traveling abroad with family, not giving details of assets acquired in wife’s name in property details and changing the terms of the tender without the consent of the board to benefit a particular company. The other three officers are also accused of being involved in this.
A complaint letter was filed against these officials for misusing post and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) was authorized by the Cabinet Secretariat and the Monitoring Department for conducting preliminary investigation. The ACB did so and on the basis of the facts and evidence available, had recommended to record a case against the three officials. After the report was submitted by the ACB, it was reviewed by the Cabinet Secretariat and the Monitoring Department and they got the consent of the Administrative Department (Energy) seeking permission to register the case. The Department of Energy sought a report from the three accused officials. After they put in their response, a committee was formed to review it on behalf of the department. After reviewing the matter, this committee submitted a report to the Cabinet Secretariat and the Monitoring Department. The Chief Minister has now given his consent to the proposal of considering the departmental intent by ACB and registering the case.
