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Senior authorities said on July 7 that NHSRCL Managing Director Satish Agnihotri, who was in charge of the coveted government bullet train project, had his employment with the Railways terminated. According to the officials, Rajendra Prasad, Director – Projects (NHSRCL), has been given responsibility for the next three months.
The Government of India and the participating states have formed NHSRCL as a joint venture to carry out high-speed rail projects.
According to senior railway officials, Agnihotri is accused of abusing his authority as a railway officer and illegally funnelling money to a private company.
The senior official has refuted all of the accusations and stated neither he nor his son worked for any company that was given such contracts. He also denied favouring any particular company, sources close to Agnihotri told PTI. However, when approached, Agnihotri declined to comment.
They said that Agnihotri’s dismissal was made in response to a June 2 Lokpal court ruling ordering the CBI to look into allegations of a “quid pro quo” transaction allegedly made by the former NHSRCL MD with a private company during his nine years as the CMD of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).
The CBI must “ascertain whether any offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, is made out” against Agnihotri, according to a directive from the Lokpal court, and must submit the investigation’s findings to the Lokpal office within six months or before December 12, 2022.
“The competent authority has approved the termination of office of Satish Agnihotri. He has been directed to be relieved with immediate effect,” read the July 7 letter of the Railway Board, addressed to the company secretary of the NHSRCL.
Agnihotri allegedly started working for a private company a year after retiring, according to officials. Government regulations prohibit retired officials from obtaining commercial employment before one year of retirement without the Centre’s approval, so this was against the law.
They said Agnihotri also asserted that he had written to the DoPT seeking a waiver of the one-year cooling-off period before joining the firm.
Officials said the complaints against him were made by one of his batchmates after he bagged the prestigious job of heading the NHSRCL, which is the implementing agency of the government’s ambitious bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
A 1982-batch IRSE officer, Agnihotri joined NHSRCL in July 2021. Earlier he was the chairman and managing director of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).
He has over 20 years of experience in the implementation of mega rail infrastructure projects. He also held the position of chairman, High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (HSRC), a fully owned subsidiary of RVNL from its inception in July 2012 till August 2018.
HSRC was the organisation on the Indian side responsible for carrying out different high-speed studies that were carried out on a government-to-government basis, among others, with China and Spain. Agnihotri’s employment with the Railways has been terminated, but the organisation has declined to comment on the allegations against him.
(With PTI inputs)
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