Welcoming the recent Delhi High Court judgment, which partly set aside an arbitration award directing the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to pay compensation to the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd. (DAMEPL) for breach of contract, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday questioned the Centre’s refusal to accept the Delhi government’s recommendation of a CBI probe into the matter.
‘Firm cheated Delhi’
“The court has rightly prevented wrong payment to a company, which cheated Delhi. It has correctly prevented the defaulting company [Anil Ambani-owned DAMEPL] from wrongly getting ₹4,500 crore of taxpayers’ money for making profit and running away from its responsibility of operating this critical metro line,” AAP said in a statement.
The statement read: “It is extremely surprising as to why the Modi government at the Centre did not accept the Delhi government’s recommendation for a CBI probe into this highly suspect and dubious deal. The agreement between the DMRC and this private company was illegally modified and wilfully manipulated to give an unfair advantage at the expense of the public exchequer.”
‘Cause for suspicion’
“What raises further suspicion is that why is the Modi government protecting the suspect deal of the previous Congress government?” the statement added.
AAP demanded an inquiry by a “high-level team of experts” to ascertain the reason behind the defects found in the civil construction and alleged negligence in the project.
The Delhi High Court on January 15 had partly set aside arbitration award directing the DMRC to pay a consortium headed by Reliance Infrastructure Ltd for breach of an agreement between them.
