New Delhi: The Anti-Corruption Branch has arrested two directors and the chief financial officer of two e-payment gateway firms in connection with the scam in Delhi Jal Board in which several crores of rupees were allegedly siphoned during the collection of user payments.ACB chief, joint commissioner of police Madhur Verma, said that the accused had set-up e-kiosks to collect payments but never reconciled the receipts with the payments. They later fled to Russia. ACB traced the ghost directors and fake addresses of the accused firms, which used shell companies in Cyprus and other places to launder money. One of the absconding directors is a driver by profession and is in hiding in Moscow. ACB has traced embezzlement of public money totalling Rs 20 crore till now.”Those arrested have been identified as Rajendran Keezhedath Nair alias Raju Nair (56), Russia based director of Aurrum ePayments Pvt Ltd, Gopi Kumar Kedia (52), CFO and authorised signatory of Aurrum, and Dr. Abhilash Vasukuttan Pillai, director and authorised signatory of Freshpay IT Solution and Aurrum,” Verma revealed on Monday. Nair was arrested after his return to India to renew his passport. On January 12, TOI had reported on the firm directors fleeing to Russia.ACB had begun the probe on the recommendation of lieutenant governor VK Saxena and filed an FIR last November. Explaining the case, Verma said, “DJB awarded the work of setting up payment collection machines in DJB offices at different locations to Corporation Bank (now Union Bank of India) for payment through various modes, including cash and cheques. The bank gave the contract for this to Freshpay IT Solutions, who further contracted it to Aurrum ePayments. The contract was valid till 2019. However, Aurrum collected the payments till March 2020.The preliminary enquiry conducted by the vigilance department of DJB revealed embezzlement of Rs 20 crore. It emerged during investigation that Aurrum collected the amount from various kiosks in Delhi and brought it to its Connaught Place office. It set aside a part of the amount before depositing the rest in its account at Federal Bank. The money was transferred to DJB through RTGS.But Aurrum did not transfer the full amount it collected. DJB did not realise this because it did not regularly carry out reconciliation work. Under the contract, there was to have been regular reconciliation of payments made to Aurrum and received by the water utility. However, none of the parties — DJB, Corporation Bank, Freshpay IT Solutions and Aurrum — reconciled the collected/deposited amounts.“Even after DJB observed that a portion of the payment was pending on the part of the vendor; the contract with Aurrum was renewed from time to time,” added Verma.The defalcated amount was transferred from Aurrum’s Federal Bank account to 4-5 sister concerns run by Nair, his relatives and other people. The money paid for the rent and salaries of employees of Aurrum and Freshpay and met other expenses of the companies.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/djb-scam-2-directors-cfo-of-e-payment-firms-held/articleshow/97889101.cms