14 including class-1 govt officer, booked in ₹5.48 crore scam in Surat

Surat: The CID Crime Surat Zone police today arrested 10 individuals, including senior officers of the Gujarat Water Supply & Sewerage Board from Bilimora in Navsari district.

The officials and employees of the Gujarat Water Supply & Sewerage Board (GWSSB) are accused of fabricating bills, Fixed Deposit Receipts (FDRs), and other documents to secure payments to seven contractors without performing any work.

The police have nabbed contractors, Class-1 officers, and three female officers of the water supply department for their involvement in a tendering process scam. It is alleged that these officers passed bills even when no work was done on the ground. All the officials are accused of causing a loss of ₹5,48,72,000 to the government exchequer.

The Surat CID received a complaint from Jajutinkumar Mohanlal Patel, the Executive Engineer of the Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board, after which an FIR was filed against 14 individuals. The accused are booked under IPC sections 406, 409, 465, 468, 471, 120B, 201, and section 13B of the Anti-Corruption Act.

The 14 accused include a retired GWSSB engineer, six current employees, and seven contractors. Those arrested are retired executive engineer D.B. Patel, five contractors, and four junior officials—an accountant, two clerks, and a deputy engineer—who had already been suspended by the GWSSB.

The FIR reveals that in 2022, seven GWSSB officials from the Navsari office, including Patel who retired in 2023, colluded with seven private contractors to misappropriate government funds intended for drinking water projects in various villages. Patel and his associates bypassed tender rules, invited bids, and awarded contracts without proper documentation of the bidding process.

Despite being aware that the contractors had not completed the work, the officials submitted bills for payment. A subsequent field visit by Board officials, prompted by suspicion, confirmed that no such work had been done. Further investigations indicated that Patel and others had assigned work in areas with no demand for such projects.

The accused officials also submitted forged Fixed Deposit receipts to the head office, falsely claiming that the contractors had deposited ₹20 lakh as a security deposit. These receipts were later found to be color printouts, according to the CID-Crime. DeshGujarat