Public Against Corruption PIL Revives Spotlight on DoIT Digital Kit Scam

The layers of the DoIT scam are now beginning to unravel. A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court has called for a response from the Anti-Corruption Bureau within two weeks regarding the digital payment kit procurement scam, issuing notices to Rajcomp, a DoIT subsidiary, and five officials. This action was taken during a hearing of a public interest litigation filed by Public Against Corruption.

Petitioner advocates Poonam Chand Bhandari and Dr. T.N. Sharma claimed that a large-scale scam occurred in the distribution of digital kits to e-mitra operators in Rajasthan.

Advocate Bhandari explained that in September 2017, a ₹19 crore (around $1.3 billion) tender was issued for digital payment kits, later increased to ₹33 crore (about $3.3 billion). The tender involved purchasing 8,592 kits, each consisting of a tablet, POS machine, and fingerprint scanner. A monthly subscription was also required for each. According to an RTI request obtained by the petitioner, only 4,964 kits were activated by March 2019, and these had not processed any transactions per month. Despite full payment, around ₹8 crore (approximately $8 billion) was paid to the firm for subscriptions and maintenance. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) also raised concerns, which the department ignored.

The case was heard by a division bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Sanjeet Purohit. After the hearing, the High Court expressed surprise that the ACB had not yet responded to the 2020 PIL. The bench granted the Anti-Corruption Bureau a final 15-day window to submit its response, warning that if it failed to do so, the officials involved should appear in person. Notices were also issued to Rajcomp Info Services Limited, its officials Hansraj Yadav, Sitaram Swarup, Ranveer Singh, Nilesh Sharma, and Kaushal Suresh Gupta, as well as the supplying firm CRILPL.