Days after making some damning claims about the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik has been summoned by the CBI in connection with an alleged graft case involving Reliance General Insurance which reportedly took place during his stint as governor of the erstwhile state.
Speaking to news agency PTI, Satyapal Malik said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned him to the its Akbar Road guesthouse in New Delhi to provide “certain clarifications” on April 28.
Malik said he told the CBI that he was available from April 27 to 29 as he is travelling to Rajasthan. The probe agency has asked him to come in for questioning on April 28.
The former governor, referring to his recent interview with ‘The Wire’ wherein he criticized the ruling BJP-led central government over its handling of Jammu and Kashmir, said he’s been summoned by the federal agency as he “exposed the sins of some people” by speaking the truth.
Tweeting in Hindi, Malik said he stands with the truth…” I am the son of a farmer; I will not panic. I stand by the truth.”
This is the second time in seven months that Satyapal Malik has been summoned by the central probe agency. In October last year, he was questioned by the CBI after concluding his administrative responsibilities in Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa, and Meghalaya.
According to officials, the CBI registered two FIRs after Satyapal Malik levelled corruption allegations in the awarding of contracts for a medical insurance scheme for Jammu and Kashmir government employees and civil work worth Rs 2,200 crore related to the Kiru hydroelectric power project in the former state.
Reliance General Insurance along with Trinity Reinsurance Brokers were named as accused in the first FIR related to the now-scrapped health insurance scheme which was reportedly cleared by Malik at a state administrative council meeting held on August 31, 2018.
Malik, who has served as governor of several states, including Jammu and Kashmir, claimed that he was a offered a Rs 300-crore bribe for clearing two files during his tenure as erstwhile state’s governor between August 23, 2018 and October 30, 2019.
The FIR claims: “… unknown officials of the finance department of the government of Jammu and Kashmir, by abusing their official positions in a conspiracy and connivance with Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited, Reliance General Insurance Company Limited and other unknown public servants and private persons, have committed the offences of criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct.”
Adding that they caused “pecuniary advantage to themselves and wrongful loss to the state exchequer during the period 2017 and 2018 and thereby, in this manner, cheated the government of Jammu and Kashmir.”
In its second FIR, the CBI has alleged that certain guidelines related to e-tendering were not followed in the awarding of contracts for civil work at the Kiru hydroelectric power project.
The CBI, in its FIR pertaining to alleged malpractices in the Kiru power project, has named senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Navin Kumar Chaudhary, former chairman of Chenab Valley Power Projects (Private) Limited, M S Babu, former managing director, M K Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra, former directors, and Patel Engineering Limited.