CBI arrests NHAI GM, six others for Rs 10 lakh bribery

New Delhi: The CBI has arrested NHAI general manager Purushottam Lal Choudhary, posted in Madhya Pradesh's Chattarpur, in a Rs 10-lakh bribery case, officials said on Sunday.

The six other other accused in the case, including an NHAI consultant Sharad Verma and his resident engineer Prem Kumar Sinha, and four employees of accused company PNC Infratech -- Satyanarayana Anguluri, Brijesh Mishra, Anil Jain and Shubham Jain --, were arrested on Saturday evening, they said.

The accused were receiving bribes for the final handing over as well as the issuance of a no objection certificate and processing of the final bill of the Jhansi-Khajuraho Project awarded to the company by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The CBI had booked 10 suspects in the case, including the seven arrested accused, in the FIR.

It is alleged that Yogesh Jain and T R Rao, directors of PNC Infratech Limited, were paying bribes to NHAI officials for obtaining favours.

The CBI received information that they were allegedly paying bribes for 'obtaining final handing over as well as issuance of no objection certificate and processing of the final bill in respect of Jhansi-Khajuraho Project' awarded to PNC Infratech by the NHAI.

'CBI laid a trap and caught the accused, a general manager and project director, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh, red-handed while accepting bribe of Rs 10 lakh from employees of private company,' the CBI spokesperson said in statement.

The CBI conducted searches at premises of the accused persons at Chattarpur, Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra and Haryana's Gurugram.