Two businessmen arrested by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi Government for alleged corruption in conducting fitness test of commercial vehicles have been remanded to police custody till March 1.
The ACB has also claimed that officials in the Transport department were also complicit in the conspiracy and more arrests were likely.
‘Crores siphoned’
Nitin Mahawat, director of ESP India, and Puran Chand Tamta, CEO of Tambros India Ltd, an alliance partner of ESP India, were arrested on Monday by the ACB which claimed they had “siphoned off crores of rupees”.
Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal remanded them in police custody till March 1. The arrests have been made in a case registered by the ACB pursuant to the complaint of RTI activist Vivek Garg alleging that the contract for lane test of commercial vehicles before granting fitness certificates was awarded by the Delhi Government to ESP India without inviting any tender.
The ACB had earlier given a clean chit to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Diskhit and then Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, against whom Mr. Garg had levelled corruption allegations, saying no irregularity was found on their part.
In their remand application, the prosecution told the court that Mahawat had “grabbed the work of fitness test of commercial vehicles from the government by misleading it with the connivance of officials of the transport department and siphoned off crores of rupees”.
