New Delhi, July 8
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested seven accused including five from South Central Railways, Guntakal Division (Andhra Pradesh) in bribery case of Rs. 11 lakhs and jewellery taken in favour of railway tenders.
Those arrested include Divisional Railway Manager(DRM), Sr. Divisional Finance Manager (Sr. DFM), then Sr. Divisional Engineer (Sr. DEN) Coordination, Office Superintendent, Account Assistant of and two private persons namely director of a Bangalore based firm and another private person.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against 13 accused. It was alleged that accused contractors, individually or jointly have undertaken various tenders in Guntakal Division of South Central Railways and have been obtaining undue benefits in award of various tenders, in execution of the awarded works and in expeditious processing of the bills by paying huge bribes to the public servants of South-Central Railways, Guntakal Division.
It was also alleged that accused public servants have been indulging in corrupt practices in awarding of various tenders under their jurisdiction and clearing the inflated bills of the contractors, thus causing wrongful gain to themselves and wrongful loss to the government exchequer. The accused DRM demanded illegal gratification, at the rate of 0.5% of the total tender amount, in the form of gold jewellery.
The CBI added that Rs. 20 lakhs was demanded by said then Sr. DEN Co-ordination. The accused private person planned to pay Rs. 10 lakhs each to accused Sr. DFM and ADRM of Guntakal Division after the General Election.
The CBI laid a trap and amount of Rs 10 lakhs delivered to Sr. DFM and Rs 50,000/- each to Office Superintendent and another account assistant, were recovered. Jewellery taken as bribe was recovered during search operation from the residence of said Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), South Central Railway, Guntakal Division.
The agency then conducted searches at Guntakal, Ananatapur, Nellore, Tirupati, Hyderbad, Secundarabad and Bangalore which led to recovery several incriminating documents and digital devices.
