New Delhi, 22 Feb

CBI conducted searches at the premises of former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik and 29 other locations on Thursday in connection with alleged corruption in the Rs 2,200-crore Kiru Hydropower project, officials said.

The federal agency started its operation in the morning, with around 100 officers mobilised to swoop down at the 30 locations in multiple cities of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, besides Delhi and Mumbai, the officials said. Premises linked to Malik at RK Puram, Dwarka and Asian Games Village in Delhi, besides those in Gurugram and Baghpat, were searched, they added.

The searches also covered the premises of alleged associates of Malik, former chairman of the Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited Navin Kumar Chaudhary and officials of Patel Engineering Limited, the officials said. "I have been ill for the last 3-4 days and am admitted to the hospital. Despite this, my house is being raided by the dictator through government agencies. My driver and my assistant are also being raided and harassed unnecessarily. I am a farmer's son, I will not be afraid of these raids. I am with the farmers," Malik said in a post on X.

The case pertains to alleged corruption in awarding a civil-work contract related to the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) worth Rs 2,200 crore, the officials said.

Malik, who was the governor of Jammu and Kashmir from 23 August, 2018 to 30 October, 2019, had claimed that he was offered a Rs 300-crore bribe for clearing two files, including the one pertaining to the project. "The case was registered on allegations of malpractices in the award of the contract worth approximately Rs 2,200 crore of civil works of the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) to a private company in 2019," the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had said earlier.

The agency has booked Chaudhary and other former officials of the Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited -- MS Babu, MK Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra -- and Patel Engineering Limited. "Though a decision was taken in the 47th board meeting of CVPPPL (Chenab Valley Power Projects (P) Ltd) for re-tender through e-tendering with a reverse auction after the cancellation of the ongoing tendering process, the same was not implemented (according to the decision taken in the 48th board meeting) and the tender was finally awarded to Patel Engineering Limited," the FIR has alleged.

The agency had conducted searches at the premises of five people in January in connection with the case.