New Delhi: A family-controlled community of entities has repeatedly rigged the Union authorities’s on-line tendering system to safe defence contracts including as much as crores, The Reporters’ Collective has discovered.
The military administration concerned within the procurement orders for regiments situated throughout the nation didn’t detect the repeated collusion in the course of the tendering course of regardless of straightforward proof accessible to take action.
The colluding entities bid and gained contracts to provide Hesco bastions and Underground Absolutely Sealed Capsule (UG FSC) bunkers to the Indian Military regiments throughout the nation.
Hesco bastions are giant sand-filled obstacles the Indian Military makes use of to quickly construct defensive partitions, whereas UG FSC bunkers are cylindrical metal shelters put in underground to deal with and defend troops in harsh circumstances.
Scanning Military tenders between August 2025 and August 2026, we discovered contracts value round Rs 9 crore by which at the very least two of the 4 associated entities bid towards one another. Of the 33 tenders we examined, the associated entities gained 18 by bidding in tandem to provide tools to the Indian Military.
And the sample is continuous. In 4 ongoing tenders for UG FSC bunkers, we discovered that these entities have bid collectively and cleared the technical analysis. They’re the one certified bidders left within the race for the contracts.
The whistleblower who had initially approached us with preliminary info claimed there have been at the very least 48 tenders gained by these associated entities from the Indian Military through the years.
We couldn’t independently confirm this quantity as a result of the federal government’s tendering platform permits solely floor take a look at tenders and bidding events for as much as a yr again.
The tendering platform known as Authorities e-Market (GeM). The Indian Military itself put out at the very least 986 tenders between August 2025 and August 2026, value a whole lot of crores.
The GeM platform has facilitated authorities contracts value Rs 8.69 lakh crore by means of at the very least 2.17 crore orders since its inception, the federal government claims.
The final time this tendering course of made headlines was in Might 2026, when 17-year-old scholar Sarthak Sidhant’s findings indicated that the Central Board of Secondary Training (CBSE) had relaxed key eligibility guidelines to favour one specific bidder.
The 4 associated entities we discovered colluding to win defence contracts are Delhi-based Bharat Wire Mesh, Seco Machines, Kansal Wirenettings and Johripur Metal & Alloys. Besides Bharat Wire Mesh, which is registered at Sarita Vihar, the opposite three organisations are registered at addresses clustered in northeast Delhi.
We might set up that these two corporations and two proprietorship corporations, in command of one household bid collectively.
Competitors Runs within the Household
We examined tenders of simply two merchandise procured by the Indian Military: Hesco Bastions and UG FSC Bunkers.
Within the single yr of knowledge accessible from August 2025 to August 2026, round 420 such tenders have been issued, with particular person contract values ranging between lakhs and crores. The federal government portal doesn’t allow viewing tenders courting again greater than a yr.
In at the very least 5 of the tenders we traced, the Ministry of Defence obtained the bottom bids from companies linked to the identical household: a mom and her sons. The identical family-backed 4 companies appeared towards each other in roughly one in ten of all of the Hesco bastion tenders issued final yr by the Military.
Publicly accessible monetary data, together with the audited steadiness sheets, GST data and company filings present family members proudly owning and operating the companies, lending cash throughout them, and, in some circumstances, the associated entities themselves acknowledging that they’re associated to one another.
We despatched detailed inquiries to the 4 organisations. None of them besides one replied.
Mohit Gupta, director of Bharat Wire Mesh, responded as soon as to ask for extra time. Given the time, he responded to disclaim any wrongdoing. He stated, “We don’t settle for that the mere participation of associated entities in a young, by itself, establishes collusion or improper bidding.”
He added, “We deny the allegations made towards us and perceive that quite a few the complaints have already been examined and closed.” He claimed the complaints about his firm had been made by an estranged member of the family.
To the particular circumstances of collusion we identified, he didn’t reply. Our inquiries to him and his full replies could be learn here.
We additionally despatched detailed inquiries to the Navy Engineering Companies (MES) within the Indian Military that’s liable for such procurements. They didn’t reply.
Authorities contracts are awarded by means of the Authorities E-Market (GeM) portal and its guidelines embody a fundamental “One Bid per Bidder” requirement. Companies with the identical individuals behind them will not be alleged to compete in the identical tender.
If bidders attempt to conceal such info, they are often black-listed from making use of for presidency contracts for as much as two years.
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To stop such potential for collusion, the Military, as the customer, was liable for guaranteeing real competitors between bidders. The hyperlinks between these entities might have been detected by matching info throughout data, together with company filings and tax data.
The Reporters’ Collective might accomplish that simply by analyzing these paperwork and connecting the frequent threads tying up the 4 organisations.
When 4 Fronts Lead Again to One Household
These 4 entities have bid collectively for military tenders in numerous permutations and mixtures, we discovered.
For instance, in a December 2025 tender for Hesco bastions for use by a regiment of the Indian Military situated at Firozpur, three entities submitted the bottom bids: Seco Machines, Bharat Wire Mesh and Kansal Wirenettings. The names could also be distinct, however the possession of the three entities is just not, we discovered.
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One Ms Kaushlya Devi owns 95% of Seco Machines shares and is a director within the firm. She can be the proprietor of Kansal Wirenettings as a sole proprietor. These two entities have been beneath the total and direct management of Devi.
Her son, Mohit Gupta is a Director and owns 99% shares of the third associated firm Bharat Wire Mesh.
We checked out one other tender for Hesco bastions. This was put out by the Indian Military for a regiment situated at Amritsar.
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Right here the three lowest bidders have been Seco Machines, Bharat Wire Mesh and Johripur Metal & Alloys.
Information examined by The Collective present Mohit Gupta had management over two of the bidding entities and had shut private {and professional} relationship to the third. He’s the proprietor of Johripur Metal & Alloys and director at Bharat Wire Mesh. And his mom owned the third one.
These 4 entities seem collectively in various preparations in all of the tenders we examined. Kansal Wirenettings appeared as a bidder in fifteen tenders and it all the time did so together with Seco Machines or Bharat Wire Mesh. Usually, they got here out because the lowest three bidders.
Equally, Johripur Metal & Alloys appeared twice within the tenders we examined, and on each events, it bid alongside Seco Machines or Bharat Wire Mesh, once more rising as one of many lowest bidders.
A Promoter on Each Sides of the Competitors
We discovered extra proof of Kaushlya Devi and Mohit Gupta working collectively to regulate the ‘associated events’ that have been bidding in collusion to seize Indian Military contracts.
Devi was among the many firm’s authentic shareholders in Bharat Wire Mesh in 2016. In FY2023-24 she transferred her remaining 0.81 % stake within the firm to Ashish Gupta, Mohit Gupta’s brother and a fellow director.
Regardless of now not holding shares, Bharat Wire Mesh continues to establish Devi as a promoter. The monetary relationship between Devi and the corporate continued. As of March 2025, the corporate owed her Rs 75.31 lakh, making her its largest related-party lender.
This issues as a result of Devi additionally owns Seco Machines, an organization which appeared towards Bharat Wire Mesh in at the very least twenty of the tenders we examined. The proof of relations between these organisations was additionally hiding in plain sight.
Bharat Wire Mesh’s audited accounts record Kansal Wirenettings and Johripur Metal & Alloys as companies by which its ‘key administration personnel,’ that’s, administrators Mohit Gupta and Ashish Gupta, have “vital affect.”
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Beneath GeM’s guidelines, associated bids that breach the “One Bid per Bidder” requirement could be disqualified, whereas undisclosed conflicts can even expose a vendor to suspension or debarment.
The Sample Continues
This unlawful bidding sample is continuous in ongoing Military tenders.
We discovered 4 ongoing tenders for UG FSC bunkers value crores the place Bharat Wire Mesh, Kansal Wirenettings and Seco Machines have bid collectively. All three had cleared the technical analysis in three of those tenders, whereas in a single, Seco Machines was disqualified and the opposite two certified. By the point of publication of this investigation, these entities have been the one ones left within the fray to place within the monetary bids.
Military tenders first undergo a technical analysis, the place distributors are checked for eligibility and compliance. Those who qualify are allowed to place in monetary bids, the place costs are in contrast and the bottom bidder wins.
Since within the 4 tenders we examined, Bharat Wire Mesh, Kansal Wirenettings and Seco Machines are the one certified bidders for monetary analysis, this successfully leaves the Military now to decide on between three associated entities. The contracts haven’t but been awarded, however whichever bidder quotes the bottom worth, the order is already positioned to go to the household.
And that’s how the sample works even earlier than a winner is said.
The Indian Military put out greater than 900 tenders between August 2025 and August 2026 on the GeM portal. We examined tenders for less than two buy gadgets for this investigation and simply discovered organisations gaming the method. Information for military tenders for years earlier than this will not be accessible within the public area for related scrutiny.
