Click to play videoDelhi: Delhi's taxpayers paid Rs 32 lakhs to beautify the Moolchand flyover in posh South Delhi with plants.
"Ground cover is sold for Rs 25-50. You can get the same thing outside Delhi for Re 1 or even 50 paisa," says a middleman, Shakeel.
This Special Investigation dug up the invoice of Hortivision - the nursery contracted by the Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTTDC) to beautify the Moolchand underpass.
Hortivision gave the DTTDC a bill of over Rs 25 lakh for planting shrubs, palms and grass. Sanjay Dagar of Hortivision Nursery conceded on hidden camera that the bills were inflated.
"No deal happens on Government lands without any commissions," Dagar said on hidden camera.
Dagar claims that the sole Horticulture Assistant at DTTDC, Ajay Kaushik is the kingpin of the scam.
CNN-IBN: Who was there at the Garden of Five Senses?
Sanjay Dagar: Kaushikji.
CNN-IBN: How much does he make?
Sanjay Dagar: For a Rs 20 lakh project, he takes 5 per cent, so he would make at least Rs 1 lakh.
Predictably, But Ajay Kaushik rejects the charge saying, "There is no 'commission' business happening here!"
Then CNN-IBN asked him why his wife runs a leading nursery that gets regular greening contracts from his Kaushik's Department.
CNN-IBN: Have you heard of 'Delhi Garden' nursery?
Ajay Kaushik: Yes...I have.
CNN-IBN: It's in your wife's name!
Ajay Kaushik: Yes it is. The whole department knows. I have informed them.
However, Kaushik unwittingly revealed that he knew Shakeel - the man who fixed the deals.
CNN-IBN: Shakeel told us on camera that you accept bribe.
Ajay Kaushik: I know Shakeel, but our department is very honest.
CNN-IBN's SIT then went to the DTTDC chief, Sanat Kaul. Kaul in turn called his chief Engineer, Jose Kurien.
Kaul told Kurien that the department would be in for a lot of flak, if this was not attended to.
"You decide on this," Kaul told Kurien.
However, the cover-up was soon evident, as Chief Engineer Kurien refused to show a copy of the Hortiision bill to CNN-IBN's SIT.
CNN-IBN: Sir, can't you give me a copy?
Jose Kurien: No we are no giving you the copy now.
The crores meant for the greening and landscaping of Delhi's flyovers are actually swallowed by a few officials, nursery owners and the only horticulturist in the DTTDC. For these scamsters, money does indeed grow on trees.
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