CBI Arrests 7 Persons Including DRM, Sr DFM of South Central Railway in Alleged Bribery Case

In a case relating to the South Central Railways, the CBI said the accused public servants have allegedly been indulging in corrupt practices in awarding various tenders under their jurisdiction and causing wrongful loss to the government exchequer.

New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested seven persons including the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) and Senior Divisional Finance Manager (Sr. DFM) of South Central Railways, Guntakal Division in Andhra Pradesh in a case related to alleged bribery for showing favours in railway tenders, the Central probe agency said on Saturday.

The CBI registered a case against 13 accused including five public servants, Vineet Singh (Divisional Railway Manager), Kunda Pradeep Babu (Sr. Divisional Finance Manager), U. Akki Reddy the then (Sr. Divisional Engineer) now transferred as Deputy CEN Track, South Central Railways Secunderabad, M Balaji (Office Superintendent) and D. Laksmi Pathi Raju (Account Assistant).

Persons or firms named as accused in FIR include the Director of a Bangalore-based company and his company, a representative of a Guntakal-based firm, two representatives of two other Bangalore-based firms, a representative of a Hyderabad-based firm and two private persons, the CBI claimed.

It was alleged that accused contractors, individually or jointly have undertaken various tenders in the Guntakal Division of South Central Railways and were obtaining undue benefits in the award of various tenders, in the execution of the awarded works and expeditious processing of the bills by paying alleged huge bribes to the public servants of South-Central Railways, the probe agency informed.

The accused public servants were allegedly indulging in corrupt practices in awarding various tenders under their jurisdiction and clearing alleged inflated bills of the contractors, thus causing wrongful gain to them and wrongful loss to the government exchequer, the agency said.

According to CBI officials, the accused DRM allegedly demanded illegal gratification, at the rate of 0.5 per cent of the total tender amount, in the form of gold jewellery.

It was also alleged 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 the accused Sr. DFM and ADRM of Guntakal Division after the general election, the CBI officials said.

Further, the Director of a private company asked the accused representative of a Bangalore-based firm to deliver at least Rs 10 lakhs to the then officer who allegedly was threatening to create hindrances in their work otherwise. The accused Sr. DFM allegedly requested payment of the demanded bribe for tender related to LC 125, the CBI officials claimed.

The CBI sleuths laid a trap and an amount of Rs 10 lakh delivered to Sr. DFM and Rs 50,000 each to Office Superintendent and another Accounts Assistant, were recovered. Jewellery taken as an alleged bribe was recovered during a search operation from the residence of DRM. Public servants who allegedly accepted bribes and accused private persons who delivered amounts and jewellery said the Director of a Bangalore-based company and a Hyderabad-based accused private person were caught in this case, the CBI official said in a statement.

CBI conducted searches at Guntakal, Anantapur, Nellore, Tirupati, Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Bangalore which led to the recovery of several incriminating documents and digital devices, it said.