Delhi Jal Board money laundering case: Court extends ED custody of ex-chief engineer, contractor by five days

New Delhi [India], February 5 : In connection with the Delhi Jal Board money laundering case, the Rouse Avenue court on Monday extended the Enforcement Directorate custody of Delhi Jal Board's retired chief engineer Jagdish Arora and contractor Anil Agarwal by five days.
Special judge Bhupinder Singh extended the custody of both accused after hearing submissions by the ED and rival submissions by defence counsels.
ED sought five days' custody of Jagdish Arora and Anil Agarwal as duo were produced before the court after the expiry of their five days' custody.
ED said that further custody is required to establish the money trail and to confront them with evidence collected during the investigation.
It was submitted by special public prosecutor (SPP) Manish Jain for ED that during custodial interrogation, accused Jagdish Arora was confronted with the documents, a hard disk having digital data of books of accounts and emails of the accused persons, related firms and employees.
It was also submitted that the accused received funds in the bank account of his wife from a firm, namely OSR Logistics.
ED said that to establish the money trail of proceeds of crime and its utilisation, summons have been issued to partners and property owners of the firm and his statement is to be recorded.
It was also submitted by the ED that the mobile and pen drive of accused Jagdish Arora have been impounded, which contain incriminating documents and data related to cash transactions of the accused and communication of accused with contractor of Delhi Jal Board and his associates. This data is being analysed and needs to be confronted with the accused.
It was also submitted by the ED that accused Anil Agarwal disclosed that he had booked a sham purchase transaction in the books of Integral Screws Industries with Xpert Solution, Modern Enterprises and Shiva Trading Co. based on fake invoices of MS Pipe without exchange of goods.
Custodial interrogation of Jagdish Arora is required establish money trail and to confront him with the voluminous record recovered during investigation.
Advocate Nagesh Behl opposed the extension of custody remand and submitted that the hard disk and emails were recovered in November 2023. In this situation, further custody should be granted.
This case is related to irregularities in awarding a Delhi Jal Board tender for the supply of electromagnetic flow metres.
It is alleged that accused awarded the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) contract for Supply, Installation, Testing and Commissioning (SITC) of Electromagnetic flow metres and corresponding O&M operation for five years to M/S NKG Infrastructure Ltd on September 20, 2018, for total negotiated cost of Rs. 38,02, 33, 080 although the company did not meet the technical criteria.
It is alleged by the ED that accused received an illegal gratification to the tune of Rs 3 crores from M/S NKG infrastructure limited and M/S Integral screws Industries and awarded the contract of DJB worth Rs. 38 crores for Supply, Installation, Testing and commissioning (SITC) to M/s NKG infrastructure Ltd. Thereafter, NKG Infrastructure Limited subcontracted the work to M/S Integral screws Industries, the proprietorship firm of Anil Kumar Agarwal.
Counsel for accused submitted that Alka Arora purchased flat in 2014 and the contract was awarded in 2018. Had they made the payment in advance? It was stated that FIR and ECIR were lodged in 2022 and the bribe was paid in 2023 after retirement. It is very strange. Nothing has been recovered.
The counsel argued that this tender was awarded at a lesser price. They are misleading the court. There is no charge sheet in the scheduled offence by the CBI unless they are not in the picture. They should have waited for the charge sheet, counsel argued.