Bhopal: In an important development in the e-tendering scam, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) raided the office of an IT company in Bhopal and arrested three of its directors on Thursday.
The EOW had lodged an FIR against three IT companies, including Bhopal-based OSMO IT Solutions, a few other private companies and unknown officers and politicians in connection with the nine tenders quashed during the tenure of Shivraj Singh Chouhan last year.
Following up the FIR, the EOW arrested three directors of OSMO IT Solutions located at the Mansarovar Complex in the state capital.
The firm, which primarily deals in digital signature certification, has been accused of helping private companies receive tenders through the e-procurement portal of the state government.
Suggesting a wider ambit of the Rs 3,000 crore-scam, the EOW has also sought details of all e-tenders floated after 2014.
Manish Rastogi, the then managing director of MP State Electronic Development Corporation, acted as the whistleblower and had presented a report on anomalies that took place when the nine “dubious” tenders were awarded.
Confirming the arrests, EOW Superintendent of Police Arun Mishra told News18 that some IP addresses used to tamper with the e-tendering process were also recovered. “We are trying to retrieve the data from the hard disks seized at the firm,” he added.
EOW Additional Director-General KN Tiwari said the scam could be bigger than currently envisioned. “We had ample evidence to lodge the FIR,” he said.
After the arrests, a political slugfest broke out in the state that was jolted by I-T raids a few days back. Former minister Narottam Mishra questioned how it could be called a scam when all tenders had been cancelled.
BJP state head Rakesh Singh called the arrests an act of vendetta. “The I-T raids were based on inputs and recovered a lot, but the state government woke up suddenly after them,” he said.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha welcomed the arrests.
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