New Delhi, Sept. 1: The state-run Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd today said it had snapped all links in 2002 with the middleman who used to get it contracts from the United Nations and has now been indicted in a UN probe report.

“Soon after taking up my job as chairman, I discovered we had been using a sub-contractor, a New York-based Mr Kohli, to get business from the United Nations. We decided to disassociate ourselves from him immediately,” TCIL chairman G.D. Gaiha said.

The UN probe has indicted Sanjaya Bahel, an Indian official working for the world body, for allegedly steering contracts worth more than $100 million to TCIL through a father-son team of Indian businessmen representing the company. The probe says Bahel received favours from Nanak Kohli and his son Nishan.

Gaiha, who referred to a single “Mr Kohli”, said he had written to the UN on the subject earlier, too, explaining that his firm had snapped all links with the middleman.

“Being a PSU company, we cannot pay even a single paisa to anyone,” Gaiha said.’

“We continue to do business with the UN, supplying them with equipment like computers, etc, and technical manpower.”