:The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday informed a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court that there were no irregularities in the award of tenders to operate the State Data Centre (SDC) and three network operating centres under the State Information Infrastructure to Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd by the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
In a report filed before the court, the CBI said the preliminary inquiry conducted by it had revealed that the awarding of the tender was genuine and without mala fide.
The report added that the inquiry did not substantiate the allegations that the tenders were awarded by diluting the eligibility criteria. The CBI concluded that the tendering process was done in a transparent and genuine manner and without any extraneous considerations. All the evidence pointed to a fair tendering process.
There were allegations against the then Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, the former director of the Kerala State IT Mission Retan Khelkar, the former IT Secretary Ajay Kumar and others in connection with the awarding of the tender.
In a public writ petition filed before the High Court, Government Chief Whip P.C. George had sought a CBI probe into the allegations. Subsequently, the government had ordered a CBI probe.
It was also alleged that the awarding of the contract for operation of the State Data Centre (SDC) was against the government norms.
The CBI said the inquiry revealed that the SDCs of various State governments were operated and maintained by the private IT companies such as TCS and Wipro. No evidence could be gathered to prove that the decision was taken against the existing government norms.
