The Anti Corruption Branch of the Delhi government has booked former minister Satyendra Jain in the Arvind Kerjriwal government in a case of corruption in the Rs 571-crore CCTV project, an official said on Wednesday.

An FIR was registered against the AAP leader, who is currently out on bail in a money laundering case, after obtaining sanction from the competent authority under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, said Joint Commissioner of Police (ACB) Madhur Verma.

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A case under sections 7, 13 (1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC has been registered at the Anti-Corruption Branch and a comprehensive investigation has been launched to unearth the entire conspiracy and fix the role and culpability of the PWD Minister and officials of PWD and BEL, he added.

According to the anti-graft agency, Jain has been booked for allegedly waiving off Liquidated Damages (LD) penalty of Rs. 16 crore imposed on Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) related to significant delays in installation of CCTV cameras under a Rs 571 crores project aimed at setting up of 1.4 lakh CCTVs across 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi.

The allegation against Jain surfaced following the publication of an article claiming that a bribe of Rs 7 crore was arranged to pay him and the nodal officer for the project for a waiver of liquidated damages worth Rs 16 crore.

During the course of verification at the ACB, a BEL officer, well versed with the facts of the case who supported these allegations, was examined. He produced a detailed complaint in the instant matter, it said in a statement.

As per the complaint, not only liquidated damages of Rs 16 crore were waived off but orders for the installation of additional 1.4 lakh cameras were also given to the BEL. The complainant further informed that the bribe amount of Rs 7 crore was paid through the same contractors who got an additional order of 1.4 lakh CCTV cameras, the ACB said.

There have been many other complaints that claim that the entire CCTV installation project was carried out in a shoddy way and many CCTV cameras were dysfunctional even at the time of taking over of the project by the PWD, it added.

Notably, last Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved an investigation against former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Minister Satyendar Jain.