₹50cr bribe to people representatives, govt officials for construction project: DVAC registers FIR against 3 builders

CHENNAI: Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) on Wednesday booked three builders who allegedly paid bribe money to the tune of Rs 50 crore to various government officials and people’s representatives among others to clear the decks for a construction project on Binny mills campus in Perambur.

The DVAC FIR also mentions “unknown officials of various departments and people’s representatives” as suspects apart from the private individuals - T Udhayakumar, Managing Director, Landmark housing projects, Sunil Khetpalia and Maneesh Parmar, Directors of KLP projects private limited.

According to the DVAC FIR (first information report), the complainant, Rajiv Naidu had initiated legal proceedings against Landmark housing projects before the Madras high court in 2017.

In response, Udhayakumar filed a sworn statement before the Madras high court disclosing cash payments worth over Rs 50 crore to different public servants including MP’s, MLA, Councillor and officials of government departments for their ‘help’ in executing a proposed construction of multi storied apartment at Binny Mill campus, Perambur barracks road, Perambur, in the time period between 2015 and 2017.

Based on the sworn statement, the petitioner approached the DVAC to investigate and the Madras high court too had directed the anti corruption police to conduct preliminary enquiry.

The special investigation cell of DVAC which took over investigations received documents from the Income Tax department and after scrutiny, found that Udhayakumar submitted a list of people representatives and government departments to whom he paid cash.

According to Udhayakumar’s statement before the Income Tax department, in 2015, he along with Sunil and Maneesh had bought 14.16 acres of land

including old houses located at Perambur Barracks Road, Perambur, Chennai from M/s.Binny Limited.

“There were encroachments and squatters on this property and the road adjacent to the property was narrow and on account of this, there was problem in getting CMDA's approval for construction of multi storied apartments,” according to Udhayakumar’s statement and owing to this he had to incur unaccounted expenses and made payments to Government Officials / Public servants in cash as and when required.

According to the list provided by Udhayakumar, he had paid close to Rs 3 crore to people representatives and Rs 16 crore to government departments alone, of which Rs 9 crore was marked as CMDA expenses.

DVAC officials are expected to conduct searches at several locations in the city in connection with the case.