New Delhi: Days after he had joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday, January 12, conducted searches at the premises of former finance secretary Arvind Mayaram in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the currency printing case when he was the secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs.
The probe agency filed a first information report against him and a UK-based company, De La Rue International Ltd, for alleged corruption in the supply of exclusive colour shift security thread for Indian bank notes, officials told PTI.
Mayaram is now economic advisor to Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
The development comes days after Mayaram and his wife Shail were seen with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan’s Alwar.
According to the news agency, the CBI, in its FIR, alleged that Mayaram, the UK-based company, De La Rue International Ltd, and unidentified officials of the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India hatched a criminal conspiracy to extend undue favour to the firm.
It alleged that as finance secretary, Mayaram had granted an “illegal” three years extension to an “expired contract” with the company for supplying exclusive colour shift security thread. It further alleged that he didn’t take any mandatory security clearance from the home ministry or inform the then finance minister, the officials told PTI.
The extension granted by Mayaram was allegedly the fourth, the FIR said.
The FIR was registered under the Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and cheating, and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. It was followed by searches at his Jaipur and Delhi residence.
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The PTI report said that the CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry in 2018 on a complaint from the chief vigilance officer of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance.
The FIR, as per the report, said that the Centre had entered into a five-year agreement with De La Rue International Ltd for the supply of exclusive colour shift security thread for Indian bank notes in 2004. The contract was extended four times till December 31, 2015.
The agency has alleged that the then finance minister had authorised the Reserve Bank of India to enter exclusivity agreement with the suppliers of exclusive security features on behalf of the Government of India, which was signed with De La Rue on September 4, 2004.
The CBI found that the company had filed for the patent in India on June 28, 2004, which was published on March 13, 2009, and was granted on June 17, 2011, which shows at the time of the agreement, it did not have a valid patent.
“Enquiry has further revealed that De La Rue made false claims of holding patent and they did not have any patent for their colour shift thread at the time of presentation in 2002 and their selection in 2004,” the CBI has alleged.
The agency has also alleged that the exclusivity agreement was signed by P.K. Biswas, executive director, RBI, without verifying the patent claim of De La Rue.
“Enquiry has also revealed that the contract agreement did not have any termination clause,” it told the news agency.
Despite non-possession of the patent, the company kept getting repeated extensions till December 31, 2012, it said.