Lokayukta books BMC officer in ‘fake bill’ scam, seizes data

Bhopal: The Lokayukta police have registered a corruption case against Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) additional commissioner (finance) Gunwant Sevitkar and others over allegations of generating fraudulent e-bills through the corporation's SAP system to siphon off crores of rupees by showing payments for works that were never executed.Acting on a complaint, the Special Police Establishment (SPE) of Lokayukta, Bhopal, registered a case after preliminary verification indicated irregularities in the processing of payments related to vehicle repairs and other works.According to Lokayukta officials, the complaint alleged that Sevitkar, in alleged collusion with other employees of the municipal corporation, generated fake e-bills through SAP software and facilitated payments worth crores for works such as vehicle painting, repair works at the central and motor workshops, and works related to the water works and general administration departments, despite no actual work being carried out.Investigators suspect that officials manipulated billing records by creating fictitious heads and categories in the SAP system, allowing payments to be routed to firms allegedly linked to acquaintances and relatives of those involved. The accused are also suspected of receiving commission for clearing payments against these fabricated bills, officials said.The complaint was verified by Lokayukta SP Durgesh Rathore, following which a case was registered against Sevitkar and other officials. The FIR has been filed under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) and various other Sections, which relate to corruption, cheating, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy.After obtaining a search warrant from the court, Lokayukta officials conducted a search at the server centre of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, where the hard disk containing SAP software data was seized for forensic examination.