Assam NRC coordinator files FIR against predecessor, alleges corruption

Hitesh Dev Sarma has filed an FIR against his predecessor Prateek Hajela in the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption wing of the state government alleging corruption and money laundering by the latter. 

The Assam coordinator of National Register of Citizens (NRC), Hitesh Dev Sarma, has filed an FIR against his predecessor Prateek Hajela in the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption wing of the state government alleging corruption and money laundering by the latter.

“I have the honour to inform you that huge corruption and money laundering was suspected to have occurred during the tenure of Prateek Hajela, the then State Coordinator under updation of NRC,” Hitesh Dev Sarma stated in the FIR.

Sarma in the FIR stated that system integrator (SI) was given the task of supplying Data Entry Operators (DEO) for conducting updation of the NRC programme “It may be mentioned that the SI was paid Rs 14,500/- to Rs 17,500/- per month per DEO by the NRC authority, but the DEOs got only Rs 5,500/- to Rs 9,100/- per month during 2015 to 2019. Even the DEOs were denied the minimum wage as per the Minimum Wages Act,” the FIR stated.

Sarma has alleged that ‘undue benefit’ to the tune of Rs 155.83 crore was allowed to the SI/labour contractor. He also alleged that a middleman was employed in the entire process. “It may be mentioned here that during my investigation it came to light that one person acted as middleman. But his presence was always seen in the office. It is suspected that he was the key person in managing all the kickbacks and money laundering. A detailed investigation into the transactions, accounts/balance sheets of the persons involved is likely to prove corruption and money laundering as suspected,” the FIR stated.

Sarma also alleged that there was an ‘avoidable expenditure to the tune of Rs 10.73 crore in connection with the engagement of a Third-Party Monitoring Consultant (TPMC). “It may be mentioned that the provision for engagement of third-party consultants and provision for execution of any supplementary agreement with the SI was neither in the RFP nor in the Master Service Agreement/Service Level Agreement,” the FIR stated.

Last month, Sarma had lodged an FIR with the CID branch of the Assam police against Hajela and others for their alleged anti-national activities during the updation of the citizens’ list.

Hajela, who is an IAS officer, is currently serving in his home state of Madhya Pradesh.