The CBI on Thursday carried out searches on the premises of former governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik and 29 other locations in an alleged graft case involving the awarding of a contract for a hydel project in the Union Territory.
The allegation of graft was levelled by Malik, who served as Jammu and Kashmir governor between August 23, 2018, and October 30, 2019.
“I have been ill for the last 3-4 days and am admitted to hospital. Despite this, my house is being raided by the dictator through government agencies. My driver and my assistant are also being raided and harassed unnecessarily. I am a farmer’s son, I will not be afraid of these raids. I am with the farmers,” Malik said in a post in Hindi on X.
Malik, who has backed the ongoing farmers’ protest, added: “Instead of probing those people against whom I had complained of corruption, the CBI is raiding my premises. I do not have anything beyond 3-4 pairs of clothes. The dictator is trying to intimidate me by misusing government agencies. I am a farmer’s son and will neither be scared nor bow down.”
CBI sources said multiple teams of the agency began raids at 30 places, including three premises of Malik in Delhi, Gurgaon and Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat. The raids began in the morning in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, besides Delhi and Mumbai.
“The searches also covered the premises of alleged associates of Malik, former chairman of Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited Navin Kumar Chaudhary and officials of Patel Engineering Limited,” a source said.
Last year, the CBI had summoned Malik in the alleged graft case days after he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had silenced him when, hours after the 2019 Pulwama massacre, he had blamed the Centre’s lapses for the tragedy.
The CBI had last year registered two FIRs in connection with corruption allegations levelled by Malik. They involve the award of contracts for a group medical insurance scheme for government employees and for Rs 2,200-crore worth of civil works related to the Kiru hydel project in Jammu and Kashmir.
Malik had claimed he had been offered bribes of Rs 150 crore each to clear the two files during his tenure as Jammu and Kashmir governor between August 23, 2018, and October 30, 2019.
“We have already booked Reliance General Insurance and Trinity Re-Insurance Brokers Limited as the accused in the FIR on the medical insurance scheme, which Malik had eventually scrapped,” said a CBI official.
The FIR alleged that unnamed officials of the Jammu and Kashmir finance department had abused their positions and connived with Trinity, Reliance General Insurance and other unknown public servants and private persons to commit criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct.
The second case pertains to alleged corruption in awarding a civil work contract related to the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project worth Rs 2,200 crore, and Thursday’s searches were in connection with this case.
