ED raids 37 locations in Rs 2,000 crore AAP era Delhi classroom construction ‘scam’

Delhi classroom: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday searched multiple premises in the national capital as part of a money laundering investigation into an alleged Rs 2,000 crore classroom construction scam which took place during the previous AAP government, official sources said.

The federal probe agency carried out the raids after it recently registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) FIR into the said allegations.

At least 37 premises of contractors and private entities linked to the case have been covered by the ED officials, the sources said.

The ACB had booked Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and former ministers in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, in its FIR filed on April 30. The FIR alleged that financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore were done in the construction of over 12,000 classrooms or semi-permanent structures in Delhi government schools between 2015-16 and 2022-23.

The accused in the ED case are the same, sources told PTI.

The AAP, after filing of the Delhi ACB case, had charged that the ruling BJP was using the probe agency (ACB) as a “tool” to target its leaders and claimed there was no corruption in the construction of classrooms.

Sisodia, 53, held the finance and education portfolios in the previous AAP government and Jain, 60, was in-charge of the public works department and some other ministries. They both were summoned by the ACB for questioning in this case earlier this month.

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Jain had deposed once while Sisodia skipped the date and is expected to be called again by the ACB. The AAP had called the ACB summons “pure politics”.

According to the sources, the ED suspects that the execution of the projects (priority 1 and priority 2) was done with “inflated” costs, procedural “lapses”, and “misuse” of public funds.

Despite the stated objective of improving public education facilities, the cost of construction allegedly “far exceeded” standard government benchmarks and can be compared to the cost of constructing luxury establishments like a 5-star hotel, the sources said.

Both Sisodia and Jain have been investigated by the ED in separate money laundering cases earlier. Sisodia was arrested and chargesheeted by the agency in the alleged Delhi liquor scam case while Jain was taken into custody in 2022 and later chargesheeted in an alleged hawala transactions and possession of disproportionate assets case.

The ACB FIR came about after alleged lapses in this case were flagged by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

Delhi BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra, Harish Khurana and Neelkant Bakshi had in 2019 filed a complaint with the ACB alleging serious financial irregularities in the construction of classrooms across three zones of Delhi.

The ACB alleged the total expenditure incurred on the project amounted to Rs 2,892 crore, pushing the per-classroom cost to Rs 24.86 lakh, compared to the estimated Rs 5 lakh per room under standard norms.

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It claimed the project was awarded to 34 contractors, most of whom were allegedly linked to AAP.

The construction involved semi-permanent structures with an expected lifespan of 30 years, yet costs matched those of Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) structures which typically last up to 75 years.

The ACB further claimed that the consultant and architect for the project were appointed without following due process.

“The Chief Technical Examiner of the Central Vigilance Commission had raised serious violations of various clauses in its report which highlighted gross violations of CPWD Works Manual 2014, GFR 2017, and CVC guidelines. However, the report was allegedly suppressed for nearly three years,” it added.