Delhi Jal Board joint director arrested in e-kiosk water bill scam

New Delhi: Hours after questioning, the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) has arrested a joint director of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in connection with a Rs 20 crore e-kiosk water bill scam, an official said on Tuesday.

The accused, identified as Naresh Singh, a resident of Rajinder Nagar in Ghaziabad, was called for questioning on Monday.

According to a senior ACB official, bribe amounting in lakhs of rupees was received by Singh from the directors of Aurrum e-payment and Fresh Pay.

"He didn't reconcile the bill payments with Aurrum e-payment and Fresh Pay which he was duty bound as deputy director. The contract was extended for the first time in 2015. Singh helped Fresh Pay in extending the contract for collection of bill payment from e-kiosks till 2020.

"Singh kept silent over reconciliation of water bills while getting the extension done for the Fresh Pay company from DJB," the official said, adding that the further role of the other bank employees is also under the scanner and a probe is currently underway.

Earlier, the ACB had arrested three men in connection with the embezzlement of DJB funds worth Rs 20 crore.

The three persons were Aurrum e-payment owner Rajendran Keezhedath Nair, the company's CFO Gopi Kumar Kedia and Additional Director Abhilash Vasukuttan Pillai.

According to officials, the DJB had awarded work of setting up Automotive Bill Payment collection machines at different locations in its offices to Corporation Bank (now Union Bank of India) for facilitating its consumers in bill payments.

The bank, however, gave this contract further to Fresh Pay IT Solutions who gave it to Aurrum e-payment.

The contract was upto October 10, 2019. However, Aurrum e-payment collected the amount till March 2020.