Siliguri, Aug. 2: The arrested IAS officer, G. Kiran Kumar, had received nearly Rs 6 crore as bribe and transferred the money to his wife's family in Andhra Pradesh through hawala channels, the CID said in the chargesheet filed in connection with alleged defalcation of funds at the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA).

Kiran Kumar, his wife's step-father and her brother were named in the chargesheet filed in the additional chief judicial magistrate's court here on July 21. Trinamul leaders who were on the board of the SJDA at the time of the alleged fraud and two hawala carriers were made witnesses in the case.

Kiran Kumar was the CEO of the SJDA from 2011 to 2013 when over Rs 60 crore was allegedly misappropriated in connection with several projects, including construction of three electric crematoriums and a sewerage system. According to CID sources, Ajit Banerjee, the owner of Calcutta-based Eureka Trader Bureau which had been awarded contracts to execute some projects, including the electrical crematoriums, had received a total payment of around Rs 60.74 crore, though not a single one was completed.

"After receiving the payments from the SJDA, Banerjee gave Rs 5 crore to Rs 6 crore to Kiran Kumar through hawala transaction between September 2012 and January 2013. It has been found that Banerjee used to hand over the money to a person at Barabazar in Calcutta. This man would contact another person in Chennai and ultimately, the money would be handed over to one Naidu and one Anand, both residents of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh," said a CID source.

During investigation, the hawala traders, Chirag Prajapati in Calcutta and Sharad Gaikowad in Chennai, were interrogated and they admitted to carrying out the transactions. As the CID trawled through the call details record (CDR) of four cellphones of Kiran Kumar, it was found that he had contacted Banerjee and the two hawala traders several times. "Further investigation revealed the identities of both Naidu and Anand. While the first is Edigineni Guruppa Naidu, the step father of the former CEO's wife, the other is Angalakurty Uday Chaithanya, Kiran Kumar's wife's brother," said the CID source.

The agency mentioned in the chargesheet that the duo were absconding and had appealed to the court to issue arrest warrants against them. Apart from the IAS officer and his two in-laws, 13 others were also named in the chargesheet. While 10 are owners or representatives of private firms which were awarded the contracts, the remaining three are suspended engineers of the SJDA.

Gautam Ghosal, the deputy superintendent of the CID, who filed the chargesheet, has also put a list of 97 witnesses. In the list of witnesses, there are names of police officers of different ranks, advocates, employees of the SJDA and bank officers. Trinamul leaders and SJDA board members, MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya, Chandan Bhowmik, Ranjan Silsharma and Nantu Paul, are also listed as witnesses. Another board member at the time of the alleged defalcation, Congress MLA Sankar Malakar, has also been made a witness.

Except Paul, all other board members were interrogated by the Siliguri metropolitan police.

Asok Bhattacharya, the Siliguri mayor and the convenor of the Darjeeling district Left Front, said the former CEO was made a scapegoat and the government was trying to save the Trinamul leaders. "That is why we have been demanding a CBI probe into the scam. It is clear that the board members cannot evade their responsibilities. They were even interrogated earlier and now they have been made witnesses," said Bhattacharya.

A senior lawyer echoed Bhattacharya. "It seems Atri Sharma, one of the lawyers engaged by Kiran Kumar, had realised his client would have to bear the brunt and others would be saved. That is why he has time and again pointed out that the (SJDA) board members should also be brought under the purview of investigation," said the senior lawyer.

While Rudranath Bhattacharya said he would continue to co-operate with the investigation, Sankar Malakar said he would prefer not to comment as the matter was sub-judice.