Former J&K Bank chairman arrested in illegal tender allotment case

Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 3: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) today arrested former chairman of J&K Bank Parvez Ahmad Nengroo in connection with a case of illegal allotment of tenders for Mumbai based housekeeping firm that led to a loss of crores of rupees to the bank.
This is the first arrest of a high profile person by the ACB. Earlier last year, the ACB arrested Vice Chairman of Cooperative Bank Mohammad Shafi Dar in multi-crore scam in which a private fake construction company was benefitted.
The former Bank chairman was arrested from his house in Srinagar today by the sleuths of the ACB.
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“Nengroo has been arrested by ACB in connection with the investigation of a case that pertains to illegal allotment of tenders by Jammu and Kashmir Bank regarding housekeeping, to a Mumbai based Company (M/S SILA Solutions Pvt. Ltd) by not following proper tendering norms as provided in the contract,” the ACB said in a statement in Srinagar.
The statement said by not following the proper tendering processes, improper ATM cleaning, undue addition of the Management Fee and other omissions and commissions detected during the investigation, the J&K Bank suffered losses worth Rs. 6,29,56,575 from the date of award of contract.
The ACB had registered a case in October last year against a private firm and three former bank officials, including Ahmad, for allegedly causing a Rs 6.92-crore loss to the bank by not following tendering rules.
Besides this case, the ACB said charge sheets in connection with another case registered a year earlier have already been filed before the Anti-Corruption Court against Nengroo. The case relates to illegal appointments in J&K Bank which suffered a loss of more than Rs 250 crore on account of salary paid to these illegal employees over the period.
Besides Nengroo, the ACB has named Sahil Vora and Rishabh Vora, directors, SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd, Surjeet Singh Seghal, the then executive president of J&K Bank (now retired) and Feroz Ahmad, the then assistant vice-president, in the tendering fraud.
Earlier, a verification was conducted by the ACB into the matter wherein it was revealed that J&K Bank came out with a pan-India tender for housekeeping services in the year 2015. J-K bank officials in contravention of tender conditions negotiated the rates with M/s SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd. The tender was awarded to M/s SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd in gross violation of General Financial Rules (GFR).
The contract of M/s SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd amongst other conditions included ATM cleaning and deployment of janitors. The additional management fee awarded to M/s SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd by J-K Bank was not part of original tender.
The ACB conducted search at the residential house of Feroz Ahmad Kaloo, Assistant Vice President J&K Bank situated at Mohalla Muma Khan (Kathidarwaza), opposite Psychiatric Hospital Rainwari Srinagar last year in September where from incriminating documents were seized.