Mumbai CP's family-run firm got govt contract under BJP rule

A firm owned by Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve's son and wife was awarded a contract of digitization of the city police's official records by the previous BJP government in Maharashtra, sources said on Wednesday. However, when Barve was asked about it, he said the firm offered its services free of cost and there was no question of any financial gains to it.

The project of police records' digitization was awarded to CrispQ Information Technologies Pvt Ltd for five years by the previous Devendra Fadnavis-led government before the state Assembly polls were held in October last year, the sources said. The company is owned by Barve's son Sumukh Barve and wife Sharmila Barve.

The firm sent a proposal on September 30, 2019, to the state government, offering its service "pro bono" (work is undertaken voluntarily and without payment) to provide a paperless office system to the Mumbai Police through software called 'Notesheet Plus', an official said. A copy of the proposal was marked to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), he said.

Records, complaints and service documents of the Mumbai Police personnel were to be digitized with the help of the specified software, the official said. The proposal was approved by the government as the company was going to do the work for free, and the Mumbai Police Commissioner's office was also directed to finalize the number of units and files for the digitization work, the official said.

However, the project did not start due to some technical issues, he added. When contacted, Barve said, "The company had offered its service 'pro bono' and it was for the benefit of the Mumbai Police." The software, which was offered to be used by the company, is free and there is no question of any financial gains to the firm, he said.

Barve is retiring from service on February 29.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)