This action was taken following a three-year preliminary inquiry into claims of inflated cost estimates, restricting competition to favor international bidders, providing undue advantages to contractors, and suppressing reports from independent expert organizations.
In its FIR, the CBI has named the then chief engineer of JNPT, Sunil Kumar Madabhavi, the former project director of TCE, Devdutt Bose, Boskalis Smit India LLP, Jan De Nul Dredging India Pvt Ltd, and other unidentified public servants under IPC Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Following the registration of the FIR on Wednesday, the CBI carried out searches at five locations in Mumbai and Chennai, including the residences of Madabhavi and Bose, as well as the offices of private companies.
The searches resulted in the recovery of numerous documents related to the Capital Dredging Project, as well as digital devices and records showing investments made by public officials, a CBI spokesperson stated.
The recovered documents are currently under examination, she added in a statement.
No immediate response was available from the accused companies.
“The allegations of financial advantage gained by the private companies through the misuse of official positions by JNPT officials, causing significant wrongful loss to the exchequer, dating from 2003 to 2014 (Phase-I of the project) and 2013 to 2019 (Phase II of the project), were also investigated,” the CBI noted in the FIR.
The inquiry revealed a criminal conspiracy involving JNPT officials and other private individuals, including an official from Tata Consulting Engineers, which led to a wrongful loss of ₹365.90 crore for Phase-I and ₹438 crore for Phase-II to JNPT due to over-dredging.
This case pertains to a project initiated by JNPT to deepen and broaden the navigational channel shared with Mumbai Port in 2003 to accommodate larger cargo ships.
TCE was engaged for the preparation of a final report on the dredging activities for the Capital Dredging Phase-I project, which was submitted in 2010 in collaboration with Dredging Solution.
TCE was also assigned the role of project management consultant for the initiative, responsible for preparing tender documents and supervising the project execution, according to the FIR.
During its preliminary investigation, the CBI found that JNPT officials, alongside TCE personnel, tailored tender conditions to favor foreign bidders, violating Competition Commission of India guidelines by facilitating complimentary bidding and permitting the joint venture of solely eligible bidders Boskalis Smit India LLP and Jan De Nul Dredging India Pvt Ltd (referred to as BSI-JDN JV).
The CBI inquiry further uncovered violations of multiple guidelines concerning dredging rates for various types of rocks, project delays, false claims of ₹348 crore by the contractor without actual work performed, overpayments totaling ₹430 crore, and the manipulation of the pre-dredge survey through the use of less accurate software, ‘Qinsy’, among other issues.
