The CBI has booked nine officials of the National Thermal Power Corporation for alleged involvement in financial irregularities in a 4,000-MW super thermal power plant project in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh.
The accused have been identified as former DGM Bishwanath Prasad, DGM Shyama Nanda Mandal, assistant manager Mahesh Kumar Mishra, engineer Rupendra Kumar Sahu and junior engineers Kanak Saha, Harshvardhan Mathia, Sudhir Purohit and Laxmi Prasad Ratre.
The case has been registered following a complaint from the NTPC. The Corporation was setting up the plant in Lara village of Raigarh — its zero date was December 13, 2012 — for which it bought a huge quantity of steel and cement. The procurement, storage and issue of materials was the responsibility of the contract and material stores department of the project.
The irregularities were first noticed during a physical verification, for which a report was submitted to the NTPC in July, 2016. Subsequently, two more verifications were carried out. In view of a significant shortfall in the two items, a committee was constituted to investigate the discrepancies. The loss on account of shortfall was pegged over ₹1 crore.
The NTPC has raised suspicion on some other former officials whose role too may be probed by the CBI.
