Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has registered an FIR against 5 officials of the Gwalior Municipal Corporation and the owner of a private advertising firm in connection with a financial irregularity that allegedly caused a loss of ₹54 lakh to the civic body.
According to the investigation, the case dates back to 2017, when the Gwalior Municipal Corporation issued a tender for displaying advertisements on 48 public toilets.
The contract was awarded to a firm named Deepak Advertisers. The agreement was signed between then CCO Pradeep Chaturvedi and the firm’s owner Deepak Jethwani.
However, the EOW probe revealed that several clauses in the agreement were forged and not part of the original resolution approved by the Mayor-in-Council.
These clauses allegedly provided extra financial benefits to the firm which led to a loss of around ₹54 lakh to the corporation.
The actual payable amount for the advertisements was around ₹72 lakh, but officials reportedly made incorrect calculations that reduced the amount.
Following the inquiry, the EOW has filed cases against several officials, excluding the late Pradeep Chaturvedi.
Those named include Assistant Nodal Officer Shashikant Shukla, Assistant Clerk Madan Paliya, Outsourced Employee Dharmendra Sharma, Additional Commissioner Rajesh Srivastava, Devendra Paliya, Superintending Engineer JP Para and Deputy Commissioner Sunil Singh Chauhan.
The EOW has also named Deepak Jethwani, the owner of Deepak Advertisers, as an accused in the case.
