BSNL-ZTE Rs 1000-crore ‘scam’: Delhi HC directs BSNL to initiate departmental action against its officials

TNN Bureau. Updated: 2/11/2023 3:35:30 PM Science and Technology

The Delhi High Court has directed Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to initiate departmental action against its officers as suggested by the Central Bureau of Investigation for allegedly formulating improper tenders and lack of planning before issuing of purchase orders of GSM telephone mobile lines.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad in its February 9 decision observed that the CBI registered a preliminary inquiry on the direction of the HC and had submitted its status report after concluding the investigation.

“On a perusal of the status reports, this court does not find any reason to discard the status reports filed by the CBI and pass any further directions. This court, however, directs the BSNL to initiate departmental action, as suggested by the CBI, against its officers,” the HC said, disposing of a plea moved by the NGO Telecom Watchdog alleging that the BSNL officials had connived with a Chinese company ZTE Telecom India Pvt Ltd and forged official records of BSNL so that “undue payments” of about Rs 1,000 crore could be released to the firm.

The HC, in its order, however, made it clear that it had not expressed any opinion on the merits of the “imputations of allegations on the officers of BSNL”.

“Any action initiated by the BSNL can be taken to its logical conclusion on its own merits. As directed by the apex court in Latika Kumari (supra), CBI is directed to supply a copy of the entry of the closure to the petitioner disclosing the reasons, in brief, for closing the complaint and not proceeding further,” the HC said while granting liberty to the NGO to take recourse to the legal remedies in accordance with law.

The CBI in its status report of January 11 had said that though the money had been received by Trimax IT and Infrastructure Ltd (another company) from ZTE but no link has been established that the money received by Trimax IT and Infrastructure Ltd was used in bribing the BSNL officials.

The court noted that the CBI report suggested that a departmental enquiry be initiated against Anupam Srivastava, the then BSNL CMD who was the head of the management committee of BSNL for making “modification in the payment milestone without deliberating upon the efforts to acquire the sites which resulted into financial loss and technical degradation by having the add-on work contract with ZTE at the rate of year 2011”.

The CBI’s report suggested that if found necessary departmental action can be taken against the officers of BSNL for formulating improper tenders and lack of planning before issuing purchase orders.

The NGO had alleged that BSNL in 2011 invited tenders for north, south and east zones for 14.37 million GSM mobile telephone lines on turnkey basis and following a transparent competitive bidding process, ZTE Telecom emerged as the successful bidder for all three zones at a cost of Rs 4,204.85 crore.

The NGO had alleged that in its tender, BSNL had prescribed eight milestones for releasing payments, as per which only 50 per cent payment was payable up to delivery stage and the balance was to be released in stages on installation and commissioning.

The NGO had alleged that though the BSNL kept on procuring the material, the ZTE Telecom did not make the sites ready for installation which resulted in a loss of a substantial quantity of material, lying in the ZTE’s storeroom.

“The allegation of the petitioner is that M/s ZTE in connivance with the officers of the BSNL wanted payments to be released for the material without the BSNL taking physical possession of the equipment. According to the petitioner, the payments were being released without the milestones having been achieved by M/s ZTE,” the order records.

Thereafter, the NGO complained to the CBI highlighting the connivance between the officials of BSNL and ZTE regarding excess payments being made to ZTE without milestones being achieved by them. As they were not satisfied with the CBI’s reply, the NGO approached the HC. The NGO alleged that the registration of FIR in this case is mandatory if the information discloses the commission of a cognizable offence and no Preliminary Enquiry is permissible in such a situation.

The NGO contended that the CBI had violated the judgment of the apex court in Lalita Kumari v Govt of UP by not registering an FIR in spite of the complaint disclosing the commission of cognizable offence. The CBI, on the other hand, said that after investigating the case it was found that there were no materials to proceed further and a closure report has been filed giving certain recommendations.


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