Hearing complete in Meinhardt case, Jharkhand High Court reserves judgement 

Ranchi, June 22: The hearing of the Mienhardt scam case in Jharkhand High Court is over.

Jharkhand High Court has reserved the decision. The petitioner in this case is East Singhbhum MLA Saryu Rai, whose complaint was heard. After the hearing, the court has reserved the decision.

This case is from the time when Raghubar Das, the current Governor of Odisha, was the Urban Development Minister. A case was filed by MLA Saryu Rai. In this case, the court asked the advocate present on behalf of the petitioner that when he came to know that Meinhardt agency has committed financial irregularities in giving the work of DPR of sewerage drainage in Ranchi, then why did he not register a case in the police station or  file a complaint in the civil court.

The complaint of this case was only made in the Vigilance Bureau and was left. In this case, the court was told that in December 2020, a preliminary enquiry (PE) was registered by the ACB regarding this matter, but an FIR was not filed in the case.

Saryu Rai accused the Meinhardt agency of committing a scam of Rs 21 crore in preparing the DPR of Ranchi’s sewerage drainage. He had raised this matter in the Jharkhand Assembly, after which on the instructions of the government, the ACB registered a PE in December 2020, but its report has not been received yet, after which Saryu Rai filed a petition in the High Court.

It has been said in this that even after about two and a half years, what came in the PE in the Manhart scam case has not been found yet and neither has any case been registered by the ACB. For this reason he has gone to the High Court.

The then urban development department minister Raghubar Das was also an accused in this case.

Saryu Rai had told that after Jharkhand became a separate state, a petition was filed in Jharkhand High Court by some social workers of Ranchi, in which the court gave an important order in 2003. The High Court had ordered to develop sewerage drainage system in the capital Ranchi. In the light of the said order, a tender was issued to appoint consultants on the orders of the then urban development minister Bachha Singh.

“After this, two consultants were selected. But in the meantime, the government changed and in 2005, Raghubar Das was made urban development minister in Arjun Munda’s government. Raghubar Das called a meeting on 31 August to finalize the DPR, in which it was decided that the previously selected consultant should be removed,” Rai alleged.

“After this, the matter went to the High Court. Meanwhile, Singapore company Meinhardt was appointed as consultant. Consultancy was done by spending Rs 21 crore, but no work was done,” Rai has said