CBI arrests railway officer posted in Guwahati, hawala operators in bribery case

An Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM) posted in Guwahati and three 'hawala operators' were among seven arrested by the CBI in a case related to alleged bribery worth Rs 50 lakh from private contractors.

The CBI said in a statement that a case was registered against an Additional DRM, Jitendra Pal Singh and others to investigate into the allegation that Singh was showing undue favour to private contractors in lieu of money.

"It was alleged that the accused had entered into a conspiracy with the intention of showing undue favours to the private contractors for awarding of contract agreements, preparation of measurement book, processing of running account bills, early release of payment against pending bills and for the ongoing work of construction in North East Frontier Railway (NFR) as well as for early release of security deposit and bank guarantees," the CBI said in a statement on Sunday.

Based on the complaint, the CBI laid a trap and caught an acquaintance of ADRM, Guwahati while accepting a bribe of Rs 50 lakh on behalf of Singh delivered through a "hawala channel."

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The other arrested persons have been identified a Shyamal Kumar Deb (contractor, who arranged the money), Hari Om (acquaintance of Singh), Yogendra Kumar Singh(driver of Hariom), Dilawar Khan, (cashier of the Hawala shop), Vinod Kumar Singhal(owner of the Hawala shop) and Sanjeet Ray (Hawala cashier).

The CBI statement said there was further allegation that the ADRM demanded and accepted undue advantage from various contractors while he was posted as Chief Engineer, Construction at New Jalpaiguri under the NFR in Bengal. "It was also alleged that a contractor was facilitating the delivery of the bribe to the ADRM through his acquaintance from a Hawala operator in Delhi," said the statement.

The CBI said searches were conducted at the premises of ADRM and others in various locations including at Delhi, Narora, Guwahati, Siliguri and Aligarh which led to recovery of cash of Rs 47 lakh, laptops and several incriminating documents.