The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in Jammu has registered a case against the then officers and officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) (R&B) Division-III, Jammu, including Executive Engineer Bikram Singh and a contractor for allegedly abusing their official positions and conferring undue pecuniary benefits.
The ACB registered an FIR (No. 05/2024) under section 5 (1) (d) read with 5 (2) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act and 120-B of the RPC against the officers, officials, and the beneficiary contractor, Avikash Choudhary. The case was initiated based on a complaint alleging that the contractor, in league with concerned engineers from PWD (R&B) Division-III, Jammu, manipulated the contract for the upgradation of the road from Lohri Chak to Chakrali via Sohagini in Block Marh under NABARD. It was alleged that the contractor quoted the lowest rates to secure the contract but violated all clauses of the tender, resulting in a loss to the government exchequer.
During the verification conducted by the ACB, it was revealed that while executing the road work, an item – laying of 50 mm Premix Bituminous Macadam (BM) base course – was not included in the Detailed Project Report (DPR). However, a quantity of 19,250 square meters of 50 mm Premix Bituminous Macadam base course was advertised at a rate of ₹430 per square meter, allegedly to facilitate the contractor, Avikash Choudhary, in securing the contract. The investigation further uncovered that the contractor, Avikash Choudhary, quoted abnormally low and unworkable rates of ₹4.30 per square meter for Bituminous Macadam (BM) against the advertised rate of ₹430 per square meter and ₹0.50 per kilogram for reinforcement of RCC work against ₹60 per kilogram. Despite these low rates, the contractor did not execute the abnormally low-rated items, particularly Bituminous Macadam (BM), at the site.
The ACB alleges that the concerned officers and officials of PWD Division-III, Jammu, namely Bikram Singh, the then Executive Engineer, and Gurcharan Singh, the then Assistant Executive Engineer, colluded with the contractor and facilitated the release of the performance security and additional security deposit kept for the unbalanced bid, which should have been released only after successful completion of the work.
Additionally, the ACB found that Bikram Singh and Gurcharan Singh recommended a post-facto sanction for an additional cost of ₹86,88,925 against the original allotment of ₹1,82,89,075. The then Chief Engineer issued the post-facto allotment/approval for the already executed excess work, violating codal formalities instead of inviting a fresh tender. The discrepancies in rates, excess quantities, and other violations of the allotment/agreement were allegedly not highlighted by the then Head Draftsman, Sundesh Kumar Kotwal, Sumer Singh, and Draftsmen Shiv Darshan Singh Jamwal and Atul Sharma.
The ACB alleges that the concerned officers and officials of PWD (R&B) Division-III, Jammu, abused their official positions and colluded with the beneficiary contractor, Avikash Choudhary, to confer undue pecuniary benefits upon him for ulterior motives. The ACB has registered the case and initiated an investigation into the matter.
