Railway official bribery case: CBI recovers Rs 2.04 crore in fresh raids taking total amount to Rs 4.43 crore

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New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday (January 19, 2021) recovered approximately Rs 2.04 crore during further searches conducted in an on-going investigation of a bribery case related to senior railway officials.

Over Rs 4.43 crore has been recovered so far from the senior officers of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

The probe agency said that it was found during further searches at the premises of a private firm (allegedly involved in the said case) located at Kailash Colony, New Delhi that certain items were removed and concealed at other places in the national capital. After a thorough search, cash of approximately Rs 2.04 crore along with other items were seized from the said place for further investigation.

Moreover, searches are also being conducted in Sikkim and Kanpur.

Notably, during earlier searches at 26 locations including Delhi, Uttrakhand, Assam, Tripura and West Bengal, a total amount of over Rs 2.39 crore was recovered. This included an alleged bribe of Rs 1 crore, which exchanged hands and is stated to be one of the biggest bribe money trapped. Besides this, there was the recovery of jewellery and documents related to property from the locations of the accused. 

CBI has registered a case against a senior railway officer - Chief Administrative Officer/Construction-II, North East Frontier Railways, Maligaon (Assam) and others including a Deputy Chief Engineer, NFR; an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEN), NFR; a Director & an employee of a private company based at Guwahati; a private person and unknown others, under relevant sections of IPC and PC Act. 

It was alleged that the accused were abusing their official position for obtaining illegal gratification. It was also said that some senior public functionaries of North East Frontier Railways were involved in corrupt practices with private contractors for the on-going projects in the North-East Frontier Railways. The contractors were allegedly being facilitated in awarding the contracts processing of subsequent bills, the release of payments etc by the public functionaries in lieu of illegal gratifications.

CBI has arrested the Chief Administrative Officer; 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-East Frontier Railway) in the case.

The transit remand of the arrested accused was obtained from Competent Courts and the accused are being brought to Delhi. Further investigation is continuing.