Owners of Micromax Informatics held for bribing MCD staff

New Delhi, Aug. 7 -- The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) onWednesday arrested RajeshAgarwal and Manish Tuli - the owners-cum-partners of MicromaxInformatics, a company that is among the country's top mobile-handsetmanufacturers - for allegedly giving a bribe of Rs. 30 lakh to two junioremployees of the North DelhiMunicipal Corporation to seekauthorisation for setting up a banquethall in north Delhi.

The bribe was allegedly meant for asuperintending engineer and a few other seniorofficials, who had initially demanded Rs. 50 lakh for givingclearance to the banquet hall and are currently absconding, said a CBI source.The CBI seized Rs. 40 lakh from the premises of a junior engineer, one of thesuspected officials for who the bribe was allegedly meant for, said the source.

"The twoprivate persons arrested in today's trap, Rajesh Agarwal and Manish Tuli, areowners of Micromax Informatics, Gurgaon, which is the maker of domestic mobilehand sets. The two muncipal corporation beldars, who took the bribe money, wereaccepting it on behalf of a superintending engineer and certain other seniorofficials," said a CBI source.

After makingthe arrests, the CBI undertook searches at around 15 premises - official aswell as residential - connected to the accused persons in the case including inTimarpur.

"The twoarrested private persons had agreed to give the bribe to suspected MCDofficials to seek civic authorisation for setting up a banquet hall forcommercial usage at Wazirpur, north Delhi. A structure had to be removed to setup the banquet hall," said the source. Apart from the superintendingengineer and the junior engineer, the CBI is suspects the role of an executiveengineer, an assistant engineer and a Delhi Development Authority engineer,according to the source.

"The MCDofficials, whose roles are suspected in the bribery case, are currently on therun," said the source.

"The company hasgot nothing to do with the alleged personal misconduct of the two arrestedpersons," said a company source when contacted by HT.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Hindustan Times.