Itanagar: The Special Investigation Cell (Vigilance) of Arunachal Pradesh Police arrested three persons, including two state government officials, on charges of corruption, cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust pertaining to execution of a major road project, Seppa-Chayangtajo Road, sanctioned under North Eastern Council (NEC).
The arrestees are Tare Murtem, currently working as Executive Engineer, PWD, Nacho Division (the then EE of Chayangtajo PWD division), Doba Jini, former EE, PWD, Bameng Division and currently posted as Superintending Engineer in the office of Chief Engineer, Itanagar, and Ramesh Babu, Managing Director, M/S DRB Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad.
Talking to reporters, SIC (Vigilance) SP Hemant Tiwari said that the case (No. 2/21) was registered on March 5, 2021 at the SIC (VIG) Police Station under Section 120(b)/420/465/471/409 of Indian Penal Code read with Sec 13(1)(c)(d)13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 following a complaint from one Payi Gyadi, a social activist.
The complainant has alleged that Seppa-Chayangtajo road has been under construction since 2008 and more than one billion rupees payments had been made to the various companies involved in the construction of the road but no proper execution of work has taken place on the ground. After receiving the complaint, a preliminary inquiry was conducted.
“In the meantime, on February 19 we have received another complaint from the representative of All East Kameng Students’ Union and this complaint has been merged with the instant case as the matter being same,” he said.
“During investigation, the SIC team has seized documents viz. bills etc and scrutinized the documents spanning to 12 years of project time. The team also visited the Seppa to Chayangtajo NEC road for ground verification on July 26 & 27 and on scrutiny of documents it was revealed that there is a very less physical achievement in comparison to funds spent.”
“…Finally, we could make some arrests. With regard to this case, we have arrested three persons. The first one is EE Tare Murtern, who has been detained in the intervening night of Sept 5 and 6. After detailed questioning he was arrested on Sept 6 itself. He has been produced before the Special Judge (PCA), Bomdila and sent to 14 days police custody.
And this evening, we have arrested two persons – Doba Jini, former EE, PWD, Bameng Division and currently posted as Superintending Engineer in the office of the Chief Engineer, Itanagar and Ramesh Babu, Managing Director, M/S DRB Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad. Both Doba Jini and Ramesh Babu will be produced before the Special Judge (PCA), Bomdila tomorrow.”
The SP also divulged that the investigating team is looking for Nyakpu Yangfo, Executive Engineer, Chayangtajo PWD division, who is at large now and not cooperating with the SIC for long. He has approached the Itanagar Permanent Bench of Gauhati High Court for interim relief for pre-arrest bail but the court has rejected his plea today.
Further investigation in the case is going on and necessary action will be taken as per law, Tiwari added.
