The maintenance work at JM Orchid, a residential society in Sector 76, Noida, have been on hold for more than 20 days now, after the president and treasurer of their AOA were sacked on the charges of corruption.
Though the new president and the treasurer have been selected in a general body meeting, the ex-president has refused to change his signing authority with bank. Because of which all payments to vendors have been put on hold, and maintenance work has come to a standstill.
Anurag Dhandha, Secretary of AOA, said, “On August 5, an audio proof was presented to us alleging corruption charges against Jitendra Pratap Singh, ex-president and P Sasi, ex-treasurer of the AOA. The majority of the people in the meeting had decided to sack them.”
Anurag further added that Singh refused to change his signing authority with bank even after the incident. “All the maintenance work is stuck because of non-payment to vendors.”
“We had received two audio clips. In the first one, Sasi could be heard talking to someone from our security agency about kickback payments of Rs 15,000 per month to reduce penalty amounts. In the second clip, Singh was heard talking to a security agency person about one-time payment of Rs 1 lakh on the award of a contract and a monthly kickback of Rs 20,000,” elaborated Anurag.
He also added that a forensic test of the audio was done to confirm its authenticity.
A board meeting was conducted on August 9, where SC Bhalla was selected as the new president and Rahul Bhandari as the new treasurer. “On August 10, we also sent a letter to the Meerut Registrar informing about the newly elected members,” Anurag said.
Vikrant Safe Guard India Pvt Ltd is the security vendor of JM Orchid since July 2017. On August 5, the security company had also complained to police about Singh and Sasi asking for bribe. According to the complaint, “From the past 6-7 months, the security agency staff are facing extreme humiliation by AOA President Jitendra in the form of threats, unethical debits, withholding of payments."
When contacted, Singh told City Spidey that the audio clip was fake. “It is a conspiracy theory hatched by the security agency and Anurag to defame me. In April 2018, I had imposed a penalty Rs 1.8 lakh on the security agency following which I started getting threats,” he said.
Singh also added that the Meerut Registrar has not given any order to remove him from the AOA. “They have only asked me for an explanation on the issue within 15 days, which I have already submitted. The society is not on hold, I am signing all the cheques. Just a couple of days back, I signed a cheque for Rs 1.5 lakh to purchase diesel,” said Singh.
He further opined that according to the building bylaws, a new president needs to be elected the same day the present one is expelled. “They selected new president and treasurer on another date, which is against the law.”
