Former TCIL-ED Booked by CBI in Two Corruption Cases

The CBI has arrested former TCIL executive director Atul Kumar Rastogi and assistant manager Narendra Singh Yadav in two corruption cases, alleging a loss of Rs 6.72 crore to the mini ratna PSU.

New Delhi: The CBI has booked former executive director of Telecommunication Consultants (India) Ltd (TCIL) Atul Kumar Rastogi and former assistant manager Narendra Singh Yadav in two separate corruption cases of allegedly causing loss of Rs 6.72 crore to the mini ratna PSU, officials said Wednesday.

TCIL under the Union Ministry of Communications and IT and having presence in 80 countries executes e-governance projects, GSM systems, optical fibre on power transmission lines, VSAT networks and radio turn-key projects, they said.

The CBI received complaints from the chief vigilance officer of TCIL related to instances of alleged corruption in the contracts given to Gurugram-based Pragati Electorcom Pvt. Ltd and Space Tele Infra Pvt. Ltd. (STIPL), Noida-based OSR Teleservices Pvt. Ltd and Jaipur-based Rajender Singh and Bros for installing booster signals for mobile networks for various clients.

The central probe agency has booked these companies in the two FIRs registered by it, they said. In one FIR pertaining to contracts given to OSR Teleservices Pvt. Ltd and Space Tele Infra Pvt. Ltd, the CBI has alleged that during 2016 to 2021, Rastogi and Yadav entered into a criminal conspiracy with the both accused companies and abused their official position as public servants to misappropriate Rs 4.55 crore in the projects for the installation of booster equipment at six Delhi hospitals including Safdarjung Hospital and Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya (CNBC) among other offences.

The agency said actions of the accused had resulted in the loss of 5.36 crore to TCIL. The internal vigilance enquiry by TCIL showed that companies were issued letters of intents besides awarded contracts and works which were kept "under wraps" and not accounted in the TCIL books.

"OSR Teleservices Pvt Ltd was facilitated to undertake work at Safdarjung Hospital and earn revenue thereon from service providers namely Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Reliance Jio, whose signals were boosted through installation of the equipment.

"However, no payment towards share of TCIL was made by the said vendor and the entire amounts were misappropriated by the vendor in connivance with... Rastogi and... Yadav," the CBI FIR alleged.

Similar work for CNBC, Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Hospital were also awarded without prior approval from the competent authority and without any agreement with the hospitals concerned, the agency has alleged.

In the second FIR, the CBI has alleged TCIL suffered a financial loss of Rs 1.42 crore because of criminal conspiracy between Rastogi, Yadav, Pragati Electrocom Private Limited (PEPL) and Rajender Singh and Bros (RSB) during 2011 to 2021 in awarding contracts to the two accused companies -- PEPL and RSB -- in the erection, testing and installation of three 50 m towers for All India Radio at Udaipur, Kolasib and Tuipang.

All India Radio had placed three work orders on November 01, 2010, valued at Rs 1.32 crore on TCIL which it sub-contracted to PEPL which could not complete the work.

Three years later, the work was awarded to RSB which also could not satisfactorily complete it. Finally the work was awarded to another company at Rs 1.86 crore (for incomplete works alone), which was much higher than the original estimated cost. Rastogi and Yadav, in conspiracy with PEPL and RSB have cheated TCIL to the tune of Rs 1.42 crore approx, the vigilance findings alleged.