New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has said that those who "planted" the news that he has been named along with a few others in a vigilance report on corruption at North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) will get beaten up with shoes if they come to Arunachal Pradesh.
"Jhoothe khayenge hamare yahan," he told CNN-News18 reacting to the report that appeared in The Indian Express on Tuesday.
The paper had reported that Rijiju; his cousin, a contractor in Arunachal Pradesh, Goboi Rijiju; and several top officials of the state-run NEEPCO, including its Chairman and Managing Director, have been named in a 129-page report by the PSU's Chief Vigilance Officer that alleges corruption in the construction of two dams for 600 MW Kameng Hydro Electric Project, one of the biggest hydro-electric projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
Rijiju had written a letter to Ministry of Power to release funds to the contractor and his cousin Goboi Rijiju, a copy of which is with News18.
Rijiju confirmed that he indeed had written the letter. "Is trying to help people corruption?" he asked.
Chief Vigilance Officer Satish Verma, a Gujarat IPS officer, was pulled up by NEEPCO for "unauthorised absence," and transferred to the CRPF in Tripura soon after his report. The paper quoted him as attributing the “absence" to his investigation.
Express said that Verma's report was sent to the CBI, CVC and the Ministry of Power in July this year. It alleges an "elaborate conspiracy" involving contractors, NEEPCO officials and the West Kameng district administration to defraud NEEPCO and the government of funds that "may extend up to Rs 450 crore." West Kameng, the site of the project, falls in Arunachal West, which is the parliamentary constituency of Rijiju.
The CBI has made two "surprise checks" but no FIR has been registered yet, according to The Indian Express.
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