Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked four Navy officials of Western Naval Command and fourteen other accused of submitting forged contingent bills worth Rs 6.76 crore.
“The accused public servants of Western Naval Command and Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Navy), Mumbai connived and conspired with Private accused persons and companies to cheat Western Naval Authorities by submitting fake and forged contingent bills,” mentioned CBI in its First Information Report (FIR).
The accused include Captain Atul Kulkarni, Commanders Mandar Godbole, R.P. Sharma, Kuldeep Singh Baghel, and five private companies.
The complaint regarding the submission of fake bills to show that IT hardware equipments were supplied and IT services extended to the Command headquarters was registered in October 2017.
The inquiry team found seven suspicious bills related to Western Naval Command headquarters. Using the Financial Information System, it was turned out that one of the contingency bills was prepared by Commandor Mandar Godbole and six by RP Sharma.
Among the seven, two bills were raised in the name of Star Network worth Rs 1.91 crore and around Rs 2.93 crore in the name of ACME Networks in 2016.
The forged contingent bills were passed and cleared in 2016. But physical copies of the cleared bills were not available at the PCDA office in Mumbai.
