Srinagar, Oct 17 (NationPress) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) zonal office located in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar announced on Friday that it has submitted a prosecution complaint to the court pertaining to the Rs 3.54 crore payment fraud within the Public Health Engineering Department.

A statement from the ED's Srinagar Zonal office indicated, "The ED Srinagar Zonal Office has lodged a prosecution complaint before the Special PMLA Court in the city against Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, the former Chief Engineer of Jammu and Kashmir's Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), alongside four others -- Rajnish Bal, Mohammad Amin Wani, Nisar Ahmad Bhat, and Imran Baba, a partner at M/s Baba Enterprises, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002."

The special PMLA court has issued a pre-cognizance notice to all accused individuals concerning the fraud case, as stated.

The ED commenced its investigation following an FIR lodged by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Srinagar against Ghulam Mohammad Bhat and the four others for the misappropriation of government funds.

"The ED's investigation unveiled that the accused officials from PHED, in a criminal conspiracy with M/s Baba Enterprises, misappropriated government funds during the procurement of spare parts for water filtration plants, leading to wrongful losses to the public exchequer. The investigation revealed that Ghulam Mohammad Bhat and other members of the Departmental Procurement Committee, in collusion with Imran Baba, awarded the tender to M/s Baba Enterprises bypassing the required procedures. Undue favors were granted by the Departmental Procurement Committee for tendering, as a separate tender was not issued for the additional procurement of spare parts valued at Rs 2,30,78,597 and security deposits (two percent of the tender value) were not collected from the contractor," the ED statement elaborated.

"Instead, the Earnest Money Deposit of Rs 1 lakh was misclassified as security deposits. For the second order, the security deposit (two percent of the value of the second supply order) was similarly not collected."

"The total security deposits were supposed to amount to Rs 7 lakh, yet only Rs 1 lakh was secured. Furthermore, in the allotment order, the delivery timeframe for the materials was altered from 30 days post issuance of the supply order to 90 days, etc.," the statement continued.

"The investigation further disclosed that M/s Baba Enterprises received Rs 3.54 crore from PHED but disbursed merely Rs 1.55 crore to the original supplier, M/s Industrial Devices (India) Private Limited, New Delhi, with the remaining Rs 1.56 crore being diverted for the acquisition of immovable properties in Srinagar, including 18 marla land in Barinambal and 27.5 marla land in Hyderpora, Srinagar. The ED has since attached these properties valued at Rs 1.56 crore," the statement concluded.

During the peak years of terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir, the rule of law and accountability in public service faced significant challenges.

With the re-establishment of the rule of law and accountability for frauds committed during the turbulent times, numerous frauds and scams from that era are now surfacing.