Illustrative image

DELHI- The Delhi government on Saturday suspended three transport department officials over alleged corruption in issuing fresh Letters of Intents (LOIs) for for new auto-rickshaws and has scrapped the permits 932 such vehicles. The officials – identified as S Roy Biswas, Deputy Commissioner, Manish Puri, Inspector, and Anil Yadav, UDC — were placed under suspension with immediate effect following a high-level meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

BJP’s Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay demanded state Transport Minister Gopal Rai’s resignation over the alleged auto-rickshaw permit scam.

Later, deputy CM Manish Sisodia said the matter would be handed over to CBI. “The matter would be handed over to CBI. This govt can not tolerate corruption at any level,” Sisodia tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister received an SMS from some auto-rickshaw drivers regarding certain irregularities in distribution of Letters of Intent yesterday evening, following which he called up Gopal Rai and came to know that the matter was already brought to his notice, said a senior government official. The Transport Minister had already made preliminary enquiries in the matter and found out two types of irregularities – The LOIs were issued on pick and choose basis despite orders of the Transport Minister to follow chronological order and that the LOIs were being handed over to certain intermediaries persons instead of the applicants, the official said.

Following the aforementioned developments, the Chief Minister convened a meeting with his cabinet ministers and senior government officials today, leading to the suspension of the three officials, scrapping of all 932 LOIs issued by the transport department till date and putting on hold the exercise of issuing LOIs, said the official. “The matter has been referred to Vigilance Department of Government of NCTD for further enquiry.