CBI arrests senior railway officer, 4 others in bribery case

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a senior railway officer of Northeast Frontier Railway and four others in an on-going investigation of a case related to alleged bribery of Rs 1 crore.

The five accused were arrested on Sunday (January 17).

According to a statement from the CBI, it has arrested a Chief Administrative Officer (a Senior Railway Officer), Construction-II, North Eastern Frontier Railway(NFR), Maligaon(Assam); a Deputy Chief Engineer, NFR, Agartala; an Assistant Executive Engineer, N.F. Railway (NFR), Agartala (Tripura); an employee of a private company based at Guwahati (Assam) and a private person (a relative of CAO, North-Eastern Frontier Railway) in an on-going investigation of a case related to alleged bribery of Rs 1 crore.

The statement read, During searches, another sum of Rs 18.5 lakh (approximately) and Rs 6.5 lakh (approximately) have been recovered from the premises of Deputy Chief Engineer and Assistant Executive Engineer (AEN) respectively. Thus, a total amount of Rs 2.39 crore (approximately) has been recovered. This includes an alleged bribe of Rs 1 crore, which exchanged hands yesterday, is stated to be one of the biggest bribe money trapped.

In addition, Rs 60 lakh was recovered from Dehradun and Rs 54 lakh from the Guwahati premises of CAO, yesterday (Sunday). Besides this, there has been recovery of jewellery and documents related to property from these locations.

As per the statement, it was alleged that the accused were abusing their official position for obtaining illegal gratification. It was further alleged that the said Director of private company was in contact with said CAO in various on-going projects in NFR region. It was also alleged that on his demand, the said Director through his employee got delivered bribe of Rs 1 crore to the relative (private person) of said CAO at his residence in Dehradun.

The accused who were arrested were bought before Competent Courts on Monday. The searches were conducted in 26 locations including Delhi, West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Uttrakhand. Investigation and searches are continuing.

( With inputs from ANI )