Service charge scam comes to fore in Sonepat MC, case filed

Mukesh Tandon

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Sonepat, February 10

A service charge scam of lakhs of rupees has come to fore in the Municipal Corporation (MC), Sonepat, by a private contract company in connivance with MC officials. The Civil Lines police have registered a case against the owner of the private company, officials of the sanitation wing of the Sonepat MC, Executive Officer of the MC and others under various sections of the IPC on the basis of the inquiry report of the SP, Cyber Crime of the Haryana Police.

Pvt Company ‘claimed’ 15% instead of 2%

• The MC had allotted a tender to Pooja Consulations, a private company, for two months only for providing manpower for sanitation work in July 2019 on the condition of 2 per cent service charge.
• But, the company allegedly claimed 15 per cent service charge instead of 2 per cent from the MC in connivance with the MC officials, a complainant alleged in his complaint to the Chief Minister, Haryana.

Officials booked

The Civil Lines police have registered a case against the owner of the private company, officials of the sanitation wing of the Sonepat MC, Executive Officer of the MC and others under various sections of the IPC on the basis of the inquiry report of the SP, Cyber Crime of the Haryana Police.

Appropriate action will be taken

The matter came to my knowledge through the media. No official information has been received. Appropriate action will be initiated after taking directions from the headquarters. Dharmender Singh, Commissioner, MC, Sonepat

The MC had allotted a tender to Pooja Consulations, a private company, for two months only for providing manpower for sanitation work in July 2019 on the condition of 2 per cent service charge. But, the company allegedly claimed 15 per cent service charge instead of 2 per cent from the MC in connivance with the MC officials, a complainant alleged in his complaint to the Chief Minister, Haryana. Even, the tender of the company was enhanced by the MC officials without any fresh tender process.

The complainant also alleged that the company was working with the MC since 2008 and the number of employees were also shown double by the company for withdrawing payment from the company from the MC.

When the scam in the service charge came to light in 2020, the private company immediately deposited Rs 22.25 lakh to the MC office without any notice or direction by the MC, said the complainant.

Even the inquiry was conducted by the officials of the MC but it was closed after giving a clean chit to the company as well as the employees of the MC involved in the matter. After which the complainant filed a complaint to the Chief Minister in the matter. Following the complaint, the Superintendent of Police (SP), (Cyber Crime), Haryana Police conducted a special inquiry into the matter.

As per the inquiry report, the crime branch found that there was embezzlement of government fund by Pooja Consulations in the bills of the employees and also found connivance of the sanitation wing of the Sonepat MC with Rajkumar, owner of Pooja Consulation company, in the bills between January and March 2020.

The ADGP (Crime) sent a letter to the Sonepat SP in which he recommended registering of a case against the MC Executive Officer, Rajkumar, owner of the company, and the employees of the sanitation wing of the MC.

Inspector Savit Kumar, SHO, Civil Lines, said a case had been registered against Rajkumar, owner of Pooja Consulations company, employees of the sanitation wing of MC and the Executive Officer of the Sonepat MC under Sections 409, 419, 420,467, 468, 201, 202, 175, 193 and 120 B of the IPC on the recommendations of the ADGP (Crime) on Wednesday. A probe will be initiated into the matter after collecting proper records related to the matter, the SHO maintained.

“The matter came to my knowledge through the media today. No official information has been received into the matter so far from the police,” says Dharmender Singh, Commissioner, MC, Sonepat. Appropriate action will be initiated after taking directions from the headquarters, he added.