Assam: CBI books senior BSNL employees for Rs 22 crore fraud

Guwahati: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against BSNL Assam Circle employees, including a deputy general manager, assistant general manager, and chief accounting officer, as part of its ongoing investigation into an alleged fraud involving 21 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) officials, sources said.

According to a CBI officer, searches were conducted at 25 locations, including the accused's offices and residences across Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Haryana, after the FIR was filed recently.

The officials booked were posted at multiple locations in Jorhat, Sivasagar, Guwahati, etc.

The accused officials were allegedly involved in a scam to trick the state-run BSNL by working in connivance with a contractor. It is learnt that a plot was hatched in which the authorities authorised the contractor to lay the National Optical Fibre Network Cable using the open trenching method at a cost of Rs 90,000 per km.

The contractor allegedly offered a number of defences, asserting a lack of right-of-way from the owner of a private property, and proposed switching from the open trenching method to the horizontal directional drilling method at an increased cost of Rs 2.30 lakh per km.

This conversion allegedly breached the tender condition and caused BSNL a loss to the tune of almost Rs 22 crore, notwithstanding the contract's provisions for the right of way and easement clause.