Kamal Nath government digs out Rs 3,000 crore e-tender scam

Bhopal: Days after Income Tax (IT) sleuths conducted raids on close aides of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) on Wednesday filed an FIR against “unknown politicians and bureaucrats” in connection with the Rs 3000 crore E-tendering scam.

The scandal involving manipulation of software to temper with biddings in some projects of the state government to benefit a few private players, came to surface in January last year during the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.

The FIR was lodged on the basis of preliminary findings in the case and probe report of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), New Delhi, a statement issued by EOW on Wednesday said.

Preliminary findings in the investigation into the case suggested tempering of e-procurement portal to manipulate biddings for projects in five departments of the state government in 2018.

The beneficiary companies in the manipulation included those based in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Baroda and Bhopal.

Those named in the FIR included unknown officers of MP state electronic development corporation, employees of government departments concerned, and directors and officers of some private IT companies.

Incidentally, the EOW probe into the e-tendering scam that took place during the previous government in the state came four days after IT raids conducted on houses and business establishments of the chief minister’s officers on special duty, Pravin Kakkad and R K Miglani and two others Ashin Sharma and Prateek Joshi allegedly linked to them.

The EOW decision to lodge FIR in the case came soon after the chief minister returned from his Delhi visit on Wednesday.

BJP described the move by the EOW as a retaliation to the recent IT raids in MP.