Indian UN official arrested for fraud

HALL OF SHAME: Indian businessman Nishan Kohli was also arrested in connection with the case.

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Keywords: Oil-for-Food, Volcker Report

New York: A senior official of the Indian Defense Auditing Services, who was on deputation to the United Nations, was arrested for allegedly steering $50 million worth of UN contracts to Indian firms in return for valuable real estate in Manhattan.

Sanjay Bahel, who was the chief of the UN commodity procurement section, was suspended by the world body in August on charges that he bent rules to help Telecommunications Consultations of India get contracts worth millions of dollar.

Indian businessman Nishan Kohli was also arrested in connection with the case from Miami on Wednesday.

The indictment was unsealed on Wednesday in a US district court, which accused Bahel of taking bribe in valuable real estate from Kohli for steering millions of worth of contracts to his company.

The investigation against Bahel was part of the inquiry set off by the Volcker Committee report in the Iraqi oil-for-food programme which had cast doubts on contacts given by peacekeeping department of the United Nations.

Bahel, who was in the field procurement unit of the procurement department of the United Nations, was investigated for bending the rules to steer millions of dollars worth of contracts to Indian firms.

"If convicted, they could be sentenced up to 10 years in prison and the government is also seeking forfeiture of Bahel's interests in the apartment in midtown Manhattan which, the prosecutors allege, was bought by Kohli in 2003 and sold to Bahel at a very low price in 2005.

Bahel and family are alleged to have lived in that apartment paying little or no rent.