Crackdown on ‘corrupt’ engineers of Jal Nigam: Undeclared wealth found in searches by vigilance teams

LUCKNOW Undeclared wealth worth several crores in the form of jewellery kept in houses and bank lockers, documents of houses, farming land and luxurious vehicles was recovered during simultaneous searches by UP Vigilance Establishment teams at locations of five engineers of UP Jal Nigam’s unit – Construction and Design Services (C&DS) – in Lucknow on Tuesday.

The evaluation of assets was underway and the total worth would be ascertained later. Disproportionate assets cases were lodged earlier this year against the five engineers, including two superintendent engineers – Satyaveer Chauhan and Ajay Rastogi and three assistant engineers – Raghvendra Kumar Gupta, Kamal Kumar Kharbanda and Krishna Kumar Patel, an inquiry against them.

SP (vigilance) Arvind Chaturvedi informed that the state government had ordered open inquiries against engineers of C&DS unit of UP Jal Nigam and cases of disproportionate assets under appropriate sections of Prevention of Corruption Act were registered against them. The cases were registered against two superintendent engineers, Satyaveer Chauhan and Ajay Rastogi, and three assistant engineers, Raghvendra Kumar Gupta, Kamal Kumar Kharbanda and Krishna Kumar Patel on August 20, June 26, July 12, June 21 and June 26, respectively.

He said the searches were carried out at multiple locations in Gomti Nagar’s Vishesh Khand, Eldeco Greens (near Fun Mall), Indira Nagar, Vikas Nagar and other parts of the state capital after procuring search warrants in all five cases from the competent court.