Discharged armyman held for floating fake tenders

According to the sources, Prasad, who had been discharged from the Army in 1998 while serving as a Sipahi with the Army Educational Corps at Panchmari, Madhya Pradesh, few years back, was posing as the "Chief Project Officer" representing the Army Ordinance Supply Depot of the Central Command.

He had floated a tender for the supply of 500 computers, 100 laptops, 200 photocopy machines, 500 inverters, 500 UPS devices and even got response from firms like HCL, HP, Chirag. Some of them had even paid Rs 1.5 lakh to apply for the tender. On April 15-16, he held meetings at a five-star hotel in Kolkata to finalise the deal with the representatives of these companies.

Intelligence sources said that the contract being offered to top IT hardware firms by Umashankar Prasad is estimated at Rs 30 crore on the promise of a 10 per cent kickback.

From Kolkata Prasad had travelled to Ranchi. He was arrested while he was leaving the Dipatoli Cantonment in a car to collect money from HCL and Chirag computers officials. The police team conducted a sting operation by posing as representatives of the interested IT officials to arrest him.

"Initially, he resisted arrest and claimed that he is a bonafide Army officer. But later he gave up.

Confirming the arrest, Superintendent of police, Ranchi, M S Bhatia told The Express, two fake Army identity cards, four high-end model mobile phones, Rs 19,000 in cash, a Major's swagger stick and documents related to the fake tender were recovered from him. Also the details of his three bank accounts containing approximately Rs 1.5 lakh, and his wife's account with another Rs 1.5 lakh were seized.

"We have sent a team to search his residence at Thurwa. They are yet to report back. The preliminary interrogation points towards a big money scam," said Bhatia.