Pune: CBI registers corruption case against officials of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology IITM

Mubarak Ansari

Pune, 30 July 2020: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against the officials of Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and a private company on the allegations of causing financial loss to IITM.

The accused include Dr Gufran Beig, then Scientist – ‘F’, IITM, Pune; Vipin Mali, the then Senior Technical Officer, Gr-II, IITM, Pune; Anil Chandrakant Girkar, Managing Director of Mumbai based M/s Video Wall India Pvt Ltd; Manisha Anil Girkar, Director of said private company and others including unknown public servants of IITM, Pune.

It was alleged that during the period, 2011-2018, the then public servants entered into a conspiracy with others including Managing Director & Director of said Mumbai based private company and awarded the contract for the supply, commissioning and maintenance of ‘Digital Display System of System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) Pune’, including the supply of 12 nos. of Outdoor True Colour LED Display Boards to Mumbai based private company in violation of the prescribed purchase procedure/rules and by way of disqualifying other bidders on flimsy grounds. It was also alleged that the accused caused undue favour to the said private supplier by accepting substandard and below specifications cheap Digital Display Boards on exorbitant rates for SAFAR Project, Pune and thereby caused huge loss to IITM.

Searches were conducted at the residential and official premises of the accused at Pune and Mumbai which led to the recovery of incriminating documents/articles.

The accused persons have been booked for offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 471 (using forged document as genuine) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act