When Shilpa Shinde (IAS, AGMUT 2006) took over as Chairperson and Managing Director of WAPCOS Limited on September 13, 2025, the public sector enterprise seemed poised for long-overdue redemption. The exit of tainted former CMD Rajnikant Aggarwal had stirred hopes of reform — a promise of cleansing after years of corrosive corruption and bureaucratic decay. For a brief moment, there was light. But it was fleeting — a four-day moonlight of hope that soon gave way to the familiar darkness of compromise.

Barely a month into her tenure, the optimism that greeted Shinde’s appointment has begun to fade. The same entrenched network that looted WAPCOS under Aggarwal’s watch appears to have resurfaced — emboldened, unpunished, and secure in its old ways. The public sector giant, once a proud symbol of India’s engineering prowess, continues to bleed from within.

The expectation after Aggarwal’s ouster was straightforward: a house-cleaning. Accountability, disciplinary action, and reform in letter and spirit. Instead, those very hands that scripted the rot have reoccupied the corridors of Delhi headquarters. Names like Sanjay Sharma, Sumir Chawla, Deepank Agarwal, and Amitabh Tripathi — all familiar to vigilance files — are again calling the shots.

Despite orders from the Ministry of Jal Shakti and internal directives, Sanjay Sharma continues to operate freely from the headquarters, disregarding the CMD’s authority. Deepank Agarwal, accused of tender manipulation running into crores in Kerala, has been quietly shifted to Guwahati — a soft landing, not a penalty. It is a transfer that mocks the very idea of deterrence.

But it is Sumir Chawla who best personifies WAPCOS’s enduring malaise. The long-time HRD and CPIO officer, repeatedly named in whistleblower complaints for harassment, extortion, and suppression of information, continues to wield disproportionate control. His proximity to select ministry officials and outside consultants has earned him the unflattering title of “Invisible CMD.” Under his watch, internal orders are subverted, vigilance reports buried, and inconvenient officials sidelined. The recent removal of Raghvendra’s name — the CMD-designated CPIO and Chief Grievance Redressal Officer — from the official website was no clerical error. It was a deliberate act to maintain Chawla’s hold over information flow.

Meanwhile, a rising clique of old loyalists — Rajat Jain, Seema Sharma, Atul Sharma, Kusum Sharma, Jyoti, and field aides Vimal and Kamlesh Chander — strut about with open impunity. “Mera koi kuch nahi bigad sakta,” they reportedly boast, confident that their proximity to the new CMD shields them from scrutiny. Within the organisation, whispers have grown louder that Shinde, too, has been “won over” by the same entrenched circle she was meant to dislodge.

While the syndicate thrives, ordinary employees languish. Field officers complain of unpaid dues, withheld reimbursements, and blocked promotions. The morale that briefly flickered under talk of reform has all but collapsed. “The system is rigged — the guilty are rewarded, and the honest are crushed,” a senior project engineer said bitterly.

The story of Amitabh Tripathi adds another layer of rot. Once the key manipulator of tender processes under Aggarwal, he now operates under the title of “technical adviser” — still influencing manpower outsourcing, third-party inspections, and tender evaluations. Far from facing disciplinary action, he reportedly misguides the CVO, filters vigilance inputs, and protects his former network. As one whistleblower put it succinctly: “He knows every skeleton — and he’s still the one guarding the cupboard.”

The Odisha projects remain the most glaring example of how little has changed. Fake inspection invoices, recycled consultancy contracts, and phantom manpower bills continue to pass muster. Payments to Pureways Infra Pvt. Ltd. and Cosmos Consultants were cleared despite whistleblower alerts. Audit verification was sidestepped, while the same ghost “experts” appeared under new names. It is a racket that refuses to die — a self-sustaining machinery of fraud that has survived leadership changes and ministry warnings alike.

The Vikas Patrika exposé in October had already laid bare this ecosystem — a syndicate built on ghost manpower, forged audits, and benami assets. Aggarwal’s removal should have dismantled that machine. Instead, it thrives. Key audit queries from the Comptroller and Auditor General for FY 2021–25 remain unanswered. India Ratings’ downgrade of WAPCOS from IND A– to IND BBB (Negative) has not been addressed. Even the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ call for an invoice probe has been met with silence. The CVO’s office, once viewed as the institution’s internal conscience, now lies compromised — its decisions filtered through the same men it was meant to hold accountable.

What makes this saga tragic is not just the persistence of corruption, but the failure of will at the top. Shinde’s early declarations of reform have yielded no action. No suspension, no disciplinary proceeding, no meaningful reshuffle. Files continue to be routed through known fixers; vigilance reports gather dust. The entrenched cartel has outlasted yet another command. “She talks reform but walks compromise,” an insider remarked. “Only the nameplate has changed.”

The price of inaction is steep — both moral and institutional. Each day that the nexus remains intact, WAPCOS loses a measure of its credibility. Once the flagship face of India’s engineering exports, it now stands hollowed out — alive on paper, dead in spirit. Within its offices, resignation has replaced hope.

The Aggarwal era should have ended with accountability. Instead, its ghosts roam free — shielded by silence and bureaucratic complicity. If Shinde continues to hesitate, WAPCOS may soon become the textbook case of how corruption survives not by strength, but by the cowardice of those entrusted to fight it.

In the end, the moral of this story is bitterly simple: at WAPCOS, the moonlight of reform was brief. The darkness, it seems, was waiting.

Char Din Ki Chandni — Fir Andheri Raat.