LUCKNOW: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Uttar Pradesh police on Sunday arrested the managing director of a private company for siphoning off Rs 3.03 crore in the name of construction of schools.
The accused, Vinod Singh, was arrested from his apartment in Lalbagh in Lucknow.
A senior officer in EOW said that the Centre had released funds in 2008 for the construction of Kasturba Gandhi Residential Schools for girls in the state.
“A Lucknow-based private company got a contract to build schools in 26 districts of the state. The project cost was Rs 36 lakh per school. Bijnor was allotted 13 schools and the construction deadline was 2010. However, the company constructed only a few buildings and made off with almost 90% of project funds, allegedly in collusion with education department officials,” the EOW officer said.
Subsequently, the company was blacklisted and an FIR filed against its MD Vinod Singh, manager Dharmendra Singh and president Bhikhari Singh.They were booked under charges of criminal breach of trust and dishonesty. “Dharmendra Singh was arrested earlier. We are yet to arrest Bhikhari Singh,” the officer said.
The FIR was registered in 2012 in Bijnore by the local police. In 2014, the case was transferred to EOW.
Another official privy to the probe said the names of two basic shiksha adhikaris had also come to the fore following which a report had been sent to the state government.
