Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Abhay Rathore, an assistant engineer with Indore Municipal Corporation and the prime accused in the forged drainage bill scam of Rs 107 crore of the corporation was arrested from Etah in UP and was brought to the city on Saturday. He informed the police that he is innocent and is being framed in the scam.
After the registration of IR against him, he was hiding at his sonĺs in-law's place in UP and was arrested by cops in civil dress when he had gone to a barber's shop. He was produced before the court from where he was sent to police remand till May 15.
DCP (zone-3) Pankaj Pandey said that Rathore was on the run after he was named by the accused arrested earlier in connection with the scam. A bounty of Rs 25,000 was announced on his arrest a couple of days ago.
Many places were raided in his search but he was not in the city. Police somehow managed to get information about him and a team of three police stations was sent to UP. During the investigation, police came to know that Rathore had contacted a driver of the IMC.
After that, the police team reached UP and arrested Rathore from a barberĺs shop on Friday evening. Police are checking his bank accounts, lockers in the banks etc. So far, police have come to know about 60 forged drainage bills and the accused have received payments of Rs 30 crore.
Rathore used to prepare forged files
The DCP informed media persons that Rathore is being questioned to know his role in the scam. So far, information has been received that Rathore used to get particular details from the different offices of the IMC to give them to the contractors, who were arrested a few days ago.
He used to help them prepare forged drainage bills. Some files of drainage works are missing and the police are trying to find out about them. So far, five cases have been registered and nine people including Rathore have been arrested. The role of other contractors and the IMC employees and officers is being checked by the police.
Probe on to know involvement of others
Additional CP Amit Singh also questioned Rathore at MG Road police station after he was taken there from the court. Rathore informed the officer that he is innocent and is being framed by EE Sunil Gupta in the scam.
Rathore further told the police that he was in the Election Cell of the IMC at the time of the scam. Before it, he was in the trenching department. Singh said that the investigation is on to know the role of other officials, employees and contractors. Sources claimed that before questioning, Rathore was given insulin as he is a diabetic patient.
