CBI books 4 Navy officers for generating fake bills of Rs 6.76 crore and making 'pecuniary gain'

The CBI has booked four Navy officers and 14 others for allegedly generating fake bills of Rs 6.76 crore on the pretext of supplying IT hardware to the Western Naval Command, officials said Wednesday. The agency has booked Captain Atul Kulkarni, Commanders Mandar Godbole and R P Sharma, and Petty Officer LOG (F&A) Kuldeep Singh Baghel for allegedly preparing seven fraudulent bills of Rs 6.76 crore, it said.

"All these accused naval officers abused their official position to defraud the naval authorities and rob the exchequer of public money which led to pecuniary gain to themselves," according to the CBI FIR.

The CBI has also carried out searches in this connection, sources said. The bills were allegedly raised between January and March in 2016 at the Western Naval Command in Mumbai for the supply of information technology and networking related hardware.

"None of the items mentioned in the bills were supplied to HQ, WNC (Western Naval Command). No documents pertaining to preparation of the bills i.e. approvals, financial sanction, purchase orders, receipt vouchers, etc. are available at HQ," the CBI FIR said.

The agency has also booked four officials of the Controller of Defence Accounts, besides private companies Star Network, ACME Networks, Cyberspace Infovision and Moksh Infosys.