: The CBI has booked Nagpur Rakesh Kumar, the former director of CSIR NEERI, and four scientists of the institute in three FIRs of alleged corruption and favours extended to private companies in awarding various projects, including the giant air-purifiers WAYU, officials said Wednesday. The CBI conducted searches on Wednesday at 17 locations in Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar, and Delhi, resulting in the seizure of "incriminating" documents, property-related documents and jewellery, they said. They said the agency's action followed allegations of criminal conspiracy and corruption in a complaint received from the Chief Vigilance Officer of CSIR against National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) scientists - former Director Rakesh Kumar, Chief Scientists Atya Kapley and Sanjeev Kumar Goyal, Principal Scientist Ritesh Vijay, and Senior Scientist Sunil Gulia, posted at Zonal Centre Delhi.
One of the three FIRs in which the agency has booked Gulia and Goyal, along with SS Environment Consultants Private Limited (EECPL) and Alaknanda Technologies Private Limited (ATPL), pertains to alleged corruption in installing WAYU-II devices to tackle air pollution. The giant air purifiers WAYU developed by NEERI are installed at dense traffic zones to trap pollutant suspended particulate matter. "It has been alleged that both the public servants (Goyal and Gulia) in criminal conspiracy with accused private companies abused their official position for obtaining undue advantage .