Ranchi: The multi-crore scam in Jharkhand’s rural electrification project, which involves former Chief Minister Madhu Koda as a major recipient of illegal money, has got a link to Ranchi’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pravin Singh.
 
The Income Tax Department’s investigation into the Rs 470 crore deal between the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) and a Hyderabad-based company IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects for electrifying villages of three districts—Latehar, Garhwa and Palamu—revealed that a close relative of Pravin Singh, Abhishek Rajput received a kickback of Rs 4.34 crore from the company.
 
Rajput, who has a construction firm in Ranchi, made the company to cough up the amount as guarantee to let the project complete without any hindrance. The investigation revealed that Rajput was the man who worked as intermediary to bring IRVCL officials close to Koda and his aide Binod Sinha.
 
The company got the work order for the rural electrification projects after paying Rs 11.40 crore to Koda and his aide as part of the 2.5 per cent commission of the project cost. Three former Chairmen of the JSEB, HB Lal, BN Pandey and Brij Mohan Verma, along with other senior officers of the board received the illegal gratification in the process of allotment of work to the company.
 
In the appraisal report about the IT raids conducted at different places in the country on October 31, 2009 and February 16, 2010 in connection with the rural electrification scam, the investigating officer has pointed that Rajput was the man who introduced IVRCLIPL Lucknow region head DK Srivastava to Binod Sinha and later managed a meeting with the then Chief Minister Madhu Koda.
 
Rajput had assured all help to Srivastava in getting the contract if the company provided him one per cent of the project cost as cut amount. The first installment of the commission worth Rs 50 lakh was paid to him through cheque.
 
The company officials started ignoring Rajput as he failed to manage the letter of intent (LoI) for works at the first instance and they got it cleared by Binod Sinha. Then Rajput began threatening the company officials to jeopardise the work by citing his clout in the police and political circles.
 
In the process he used the name of Pravin Singh and his father in-law Jadgambika Pal, a Congress MP from Uttar Pradesh. And his bullying tactics worked for realisation of the rest of the cut.
 
The Jharkhand vigilance bureau, which is investigating the disproportional assets (DA) case against Koda and his company, on Saturday, lodged fresh FIRs against former JSEB chiefs and other officials whose names have figured in the separate IT investigation.
 
Pravin Singh, the Ranchi SSP, however, denied having ever helped Rajput. “I am completely unaware if Rajput had used my name to get illegal money from the IVRCL,” he said.