A “scam of ₹100 crore” in the Delhi Nagrik Sehkari Bank as well as improper recruitment of relatives of officials was being investigated by the Delhi Assembly, Questions and Reference Committee member Saurabh Bhardwaj said on Tuesday.
The committee had issued notices to Chief Secretary M.M. Kutty regarding the matter which were staged by the High Court on Monday.
Fake I-T returns
As per a complaint from July 2012, 40 employees of the bank had been recruited without due process and 62 had been given illegal promotions. A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court, which had on November 27, 2012, ordered the authorities to decide the matter in three months.
“Since then, the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) conducted many inquiries; orders were reserved, but the decision was not pronounced. These people continued drawing their salaries for five years and were only removed this year when the committee took up the matter,” said Mr. Bhardwaj.
In another allegation against the bank, a case was filed in the HC about loans given on the basis of fake income tax returns. On August 5, 2015, the Delhi High Court had ordered the RCS to decide on the complaints.
‘Facts misrepresented’
The complaints remained unresolved when the matter was raised in the Assembly on January 18, 2017, by Model Town MLA Akhilesh Pati Tripathi in the form of an unstarred question. Mr. Tripathi said he did not get a complete response and the matter was referred by the Speaker to the Questions and Reference Committee.
After getting inadequate responses from the RCS, the committee asked the Chief Secretary on May 18 to mention its displeasure with the secretary-cum-registrar of RCS, Shurbir Singh, in his annual confidential report (ACR).
On September 21, the committee issued a notice to the Chief Secretary to appear before it on September 28 as its order about the ACR had not been complied with. Dr. Kutty then appeared before the committee on September 28, but without an ATR, as per the committee members. At that meeting, he was asked for the details of file and he was given till October 3 to submit them. Then, Mr. Bhardwaj said, the Chief Secretary asked for more time and was given till October 16.
“While the committee was waiting for him, we found out that he moved court and got a stay. He misrepresented facts before the court. He said he asked for 10 days and was given an hour to produce the documents. We had given him several extensions since May,” said Mr. Bhardwaj.
