Games scam: top MTNL officials caught in CBI dragnet

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday registered a new case against four senior officials of Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd, including former chairman and managing director R S P Sinha, and Noida-based HCL Infosystems in the Commonwealth Games scam.

They are accused of colluding to award the contract for setting up a broadcast network for the games to HCL at an exorbitant Rs570 crore, which the CBI estimates is at least Rs500 crore more than it should have cost.

Soon after registering the new case, agency operatives swooped down on the residential premises Sinha, MTNL executive director S M Talwar, general manager (corporate sales) N K Jain, and deputy general manager Jitendra Garg at Noida, Jaipur and Patna as well as in Delhi.

"During the searches conducted so far, documents relating to immovable and movable property belonging to accused persons and other incriminating documents have been found,'' CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said in a statement issued on Wednesday evening, adding searches were still going on at these places.

"It is alleged that MTNL awarded the work of broadcast network based on IP/MPLS technology at an exorbitant price of approximately Rs570.12 crore by manipulating specifications in such a manner as to make them tailor made for the said bidder to HCL,'' Mishra said.

When asked if jailed games organising committee chief Suresh Kalmadi had any involvement in the matter, an official said, "We have not found anything yet, but we are investigating the possibility.''