Mumbai/New Delhi: The CBI has initiated a
departmental inquiry into Western Railways' allegation that
the agency's recent train searches was an act of retaliation
after a CBI officer was asked to get down from train following
objection from fellow passengers to his drinking liquor.
The incident on board the New-Delhi Mumbai Rajdhani
Express apparently sparked a tussle between the investigating
agency and Western Railways after a CBI team boarded the train
from Baroda in Gujarat and conducted searches on all ticket
collectors and attendants, sources said.
The incident took place after the train left New Delhi
station on Wednesday evening and the CBI officer settled down
to have a drink. Another passenger, wife of a senior railway
officer based in Mumbai, took objection to this, they said.
When the officer did not pay heed to her request, she
reported the matter to a coach attendant who in turn told her
that the passenger was assistant sub-inspector of the Delhi
unit of CBI and hence should be left alone.
The woman then got in touch with her husband who alerted
another colleague and the ticket collector on the train was
ordered to ask the CBI officer to alight at Kota station.
After the CBI officer was forcibly removed from the train,
surprise checks were conducted in the same train by CBI
sleuths who boarded the train at Baroda station. A graft case
was registered against the ticket collector who asked the
inebriated CBI officer to alight the train at Kota, they said.
Perturbed by this, the Western Railways shot off a letter
to CBI director A P Singh explaining the "unjust" action taken
by the agency’s officers and said that such incidents did not
auger well for the agency.
Highly placed sources in CBI said a departmental enquiry
has been initiated into the incident as many "co-incidences"
were involved in the case.
According to a senior CBI officer from Anti Corruption
Bureau (Mumbai), the searches on Rajdhani and August Kranti
trains are part of routine festive-season action across
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa.
The claims of the senior officer were not taken on face
value by the headquarters who have asked for a thorough probe
into the incident, the sources said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 30, 2011, 16:20