Ranchi, Aug. 24: Vigilance bureau sleuths today nabbed two brothers from the office of the National Games Organising Committee at Morabadi for allegedly demanding a hefty sum from NGOC treasurer Madhukant Pathak to “settle” investigations into the Games scam.
An FIR lodged by the NGOC treasurer with the state vigilance bureau said the duo — Kaushal Kishore Singh and Jitendra Singh — had got in touch with him some days ago.
He said they assured him that they would “settle” for a price ongoing investigations being carried out by the vigilance into the 34th National Games.
The “price” originally demanded was Rs 5 crore though after hectic negotiations, the consideration sum was brought down to Rs 5 lakh and later to Rs 2 lakh, the FIR said.
“We were informed by the NGOC treasurer, Madhukant Pathak. We are putting in a lot of hard work to investigate the Games and other cases that have been referred to us. Here were two persons who were trying to sell the vigilance bureau. We had asked the complainant to call the duo to his office at Morabadi today. As soon as the duo came to his office, we nabbed them,” vigilance SP Prashant Kumar Karn told The Telegraph.
Karn, however, pointed out that since this was not a case concerning the vigilance, they were handing over the case to the local police for necessary action.
The two brothers, however, hotly contested the claims of the NGOC treasurer. “We had transported several items, including mattresses, for the 34th National Games through Sai Roadlines and our bill for Rs 1.50 lakh is still pending,” Kaushal Kishore said.
The brothers, who are from Jamshedpur, claimed they had met Pathak many times demanding settlement of their dues.
Till date, despite promises, their bills had not been settled, they said, adding they had been “trapped in a false case”.
On October 6 last year, the vigilance had lodged FIRs against NGOC working chairman R.K. Anand, organising secretary S.M. Hashmi, Pathak and P.C. Mishra, then director of sports, besides others for corruption, misuse of official position and embezzlement of public funds in purchase of equipment and construction of infrastructure for the Games held in Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur between February 12 to 26 this year.
All the accused have been charged under Sections 120(B), 109, 420, 406, 409, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC and Sections 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
