Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) has responded to TNM’s story exposing the connection between the company’s executives and the payments made for the wedding celebrations of the daughter of Telangana Special Chief Secretary Rajat Kumar, who oversees major government projects for which MEIL has secured the contracts. TNM’s investigation had revealed that a significant part of the wedding expenses were billed to a company named BigWave Infra Private Limited, a recently created entity that appears to be a shell company with connections to people associated with MEIL. TNM also found that MEIL executives had coordinated the planning for the wedding celebrations at lavish venues including the Taj Falaknuma Palace using their company email IDs.
Responding to the story published on January 27 afternoon, MEIL has continued to deny any connection with BigWave Infra, which footed the bills for a significant amount of the expenses for the five-day wedding celebrations between December 17 and 21, 2021. “May I reiterate our stand and inform you that the companies you have mentioned in the questions are in no way related to MEIL,” M Sivaprasad Reddy, General Manager, Corporate Communications for MEIL said in a response to TNM. Apart from BigWave Infra, TNM had also found that invoices were asked to be raised in the name of a company named Interactive Data Systems, whose directors are also on the boards of various MEIL companies.
Regarding the involvement of MEIL’s executives in coordinating the wedding events, MEIL has said that their actions in “personal capacity” cannot be attributed to the company. “If anybody does an activity in his/her personal capacity, the same cannot be attributed to any company. MEIL is not responsible for the transactions that were flagged to us by your good self. We, as a company, are also not aware of any such transaction happening nor were we a party to any such thing,” MEIL has said.
However, MEIL has not clarified why invoices were made in the name of Interactive Data Systems, or why company executives were using their official mail IDs to coordinate the wedding.
MEIL is carrying out several works for Telangana’s monumental Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, currently pegged at a whopping Rs 1.15 lakh crore. Rajat Kumar heads the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department which monitors the Kaleshwaram project. MEIL denied being involved with the bureaucrat's daughter’s wedding events and said, “When it comes to projects, the government decides to allocate them after performing due diligence and examining the eligibility of the company … You must be aware that projects are allocated to the lowest bidder with a good track record and MEIL is one of the best in infrastructure and engineering companies.”