Ropar, May 11
In an important development in the employees provident fund (EPF) scam in the thermal plants in the state, a Ropar-based labour contractor, Mr R.S. Sodhi, proprietor of the Sodhi erectors, has been booked by the Bathinda police on charges of committing another EPF scam in the Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Plant. Police sources said that the Bathinda police had secured non-bailable warrants against Mr Sodhi and had laid a trap near his residence and shop at Ropar. However, the raiding party failed to apprehend the accused.
The sources said that the PSEB Vigilance and the police authorities were hoping to crack the nexus between the labour contractor and officials of the thermal plants at Ropar and Bathinda with the arrest of Mr Sodhi.
Mr Sodhi, who had carried out major works in the Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant (GGSSTP), Ropar and the Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Plant, had earlier also been booked in an EPF scam at Ropar. The case against him at Bathinda had also been registered after constant pursuit by the ADGP vigilance, PSEB Mr Lalit Bhatia.
Mr Sodhi was first accused of being involved in the EPF scam in the GGSSTP Ropar in 1999. He, along with another labour contractor and proprietor of Calcutta Construction Company Deepak Chadha, was accused of swindling about Rs 1 crore from the accounts of contract labourers working under them.
On the detection of the scam the EPF authorities had directed both the accused contractors to deposit the swindled amount. Mr Sodhi had around 600 labour contractors working under him. Despite his humble beginning as a contractor and marginal official profit he was able to deposit about Rs 50 lakh as the swindled amount. The other labour contractor, Mr Deepak Chadha, however, refused to deposit the swindled amount due to which a case was registered against him on the complaint of the EPF authorities.
Though Mr Sodhi was involved in the EPF scam at Ropar, he rose to become one of the major contractors in thermal plants at Ropar and Bathinda. The police also proceeded in the case registered against the other labour contractor at a snails pace. So slow had been the inquiry in the case that though the case was registered in 2000, the challan had not been presented in the case till date.
The case once again came into limelight when Mr Lalit Bhatia took over as the ADGP Vigilance, PSEB. He directed the thermal plant authorities at Ropar to get a case registered
against Mr Sodhi on the direction that merely depositing the money, swindled from the EPF accounts, did not exonerate the accused contractor. After the case was registered against Mr Sodhi the PSEB Vigilance also indicted many officers of the Ropar thermal plant for their alleged involvement in the scam. The findings of the Vigilance were also endorsed by a three-member committee formed by the board for the purpose of screening the findings.
Though charge sheets had been issued to many officers in the scam no conclusive action had been taken in the matter. Owing to the sensitivity of the matter, the inquiry into the EPF scam was, a few months ago, handed over to the crime wing of the Punjab Police. The sources said that reports by the crime wing in the case were likely to be submitted by the month-end.
The fresh case registered against Mr Sodhi at Bathinda in the EPF scam was likely to add a new dimension to the case that highlighted the exploitation and misappropriation of funds of labourers by the nexus of labour contractors and officials of the thermal plants.
