NRI Coastal police have booked directors of nine firms who submitted forged documents to procure the contract to provide uniforms, raincoats, bags and books to Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation schools for close to seven years.
The school kits have not been supplied to students since last year as the tenders were revoked following the fraud. The forgery was committed while procuring the contract for 2016.
The FIR was registered on Friday as per the directions of the High Court order dated June 13. Santosh Kale, director of Texas Leather Pvt Ltd, had filed a writ petition based on a RTI reply that revealed the details of the forged documents submitted to procure the tenders.
“The complainant in the writ petition has claimed that to prove their qualification for procuring the tender, the nine firms made fake work orders,” a police official from NRI Coastal police station said.
The case is registered against M/s Red Star and eight other firms. According to the writ petition, the firms claimed to have supplied uniforms and other materials to public sector units such as the Reserve Bank of India, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd., Air India, the Adivasi Department, Vasai and Ulhasnagar Corporations, Mahanagar Gas Limited and the Nuclear Power Corporation.
Mr. Kale has also claimed that despite his firm submitting the lowest bid for the e-tender floated by the education department, NMMC officials favoured other firms. An officer said, “The work orders claimed that uniforms worth ₹1.01 crore were being supplied, but the RTI revealed the figure was ₹1.32 lakh. The work order of raincoats was worth ₹97 lakh, the RTI revealed it to be ₹3.54 lakh.”
