CBI to probe stator bars theft scam

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 17

The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) has handed over the probe into the “Rs 1.12 crore copper stator bars theft scam” in the NHPC-run 520-MW Parbati Stage-III project in Kullu district to the CBI.

“The NHPC recently handed over the probe to the CBI. The guilty should be brought to book,” said Balraj Joshi, chairman-cum-managing director, NHPC, told The Tribune.

“We hope that the CBI will expedite the investigation,” he said.

Sources said the NHPC was prompted to hand over the case to the CBI as it was for the second time that the theft of stator bars had come to light in the Parbati-III project, which was commissioned in 2016.

It is learnt that the CBI will start the probe as and when the Director hands over the case to the regional office. “The case has come under our jurisdiction,” they added.

The theft was first highlighted in these columns in December 2018. A five-member panel conducted an inquiry and detected irregularities in the purchase of bars from Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL), Bhopal. “The project authorities did not follow a proper procedure while transporting and storing it,” the sources added.

The inquiry report, completed on December 15, 2018, was submitted to the CMD, NHPC, but the management was not satisfied with it and handed over the case to the CBI.

The NHPC had constituted the internal inquiry panel on October 29 after the senior manager (technical), Suraj Dhiman, registered an FIR at the Sainj police post on October 28, 2018, stating that 53 stator copper bars worth Rs 1.12 crore were found missing from the store of the powerhouse. “The cost of each bar is about Rs 2, 12,116.80, he stated in the FIR,” a copy of which is with The Tribune.

The NHPC management got suspicious as in the past too, as many as 66 stator copper bars worth Rs 1.5 crore were found missing. “The police have failed to make a headway in the case even after a year,” said the NHPC sources.

They said: “No proper procedure was followed by the Parbati-III management while checking and verifying the stator bars in the store.”

There was no demand for these bars at that time. These 53 stator copper bars were purchased from BHEL on August 22, 2016. But the verification order of the bars was issued a year before on September 3, 2015, the sources stated.

Balraj Joshi said it was because of many factors that he handed over the probe to the CBI.