Shivraj Singh Chouhan May Feel the Heat as Congress Govt in MP Likely to File FIR in E-Tendering Scam

Bhopal: The Kamal Nath-led Congress government in state may probe the multi-crore e-tendering scam, which the Congress raised during the campaign for state elections, in a move that may spell trouble for former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

It is believed that the Congress government will shortly file an FIR in the scam in next few days. In the past, the MP government under Chouhan had cancelled nine tenders worth Rs 3,000 crore, which was allotted through e-tendering process after outcries of anomalies in the tendering process.

According to sources, a team of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) had in December camped secretly in Bhopal and seized data in 11 hard disks from MP State Electronic Development Corporation (MPSEDC).

Several MP government officers are expected to come under the scanner over the scam, which primarily deals with alleged leak of the online data.

The Economic Offence Wing (EoW) which is probing the matter had reportedly requested the CERT to help out in investigating the scam.

CERT is the nodal agency which works under the Centre and deals with probes involving IT and technical aspects. Interestingly, it was the previous state government that had forwarded the nine tenders for probe to EoW.

Ahead of assembly polls in the state, the Congress had alleged that it was a scam upto Rs 9,000 crore and had promised to unravel the mystery behind it once the party comes to power, listing it among the prominent poll issues.

Sources in the EoW claimed that the agency was awaiting a report from the CERT.

Manish Rastogi, then Managing Director of MPSEDC, who had compiled and presented the report on nine dubious tenders worth Rs 3,000 crore was removed from the post by the previous government.