The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested seven persons, including a hawala operator and an Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM) of Indian Railways posted in Guwahati, in connection with a bribe case of Rs 50 lakh.
The accused were identified as Jitendra Pal Singh (IRSE-1997) ADRM, Guwahati; Shyamal Kumar Deb (contractor, who arranged the money), Hari Om (acquaintance of the public servant), Yogendra Kumar Singh (driver of Hariom), Dilawar Khan, (cashier of the hawala shop), Vinod Kumar Singhal alias Mukesh (owner of hawala shop) and Sanjeet Ray (hawala cashier).
A senior CBI official said that a case was registered against Singh and other private persons, including contractors on the allegations of bribery.
The CBI said that the accused 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 as well as for early release of security deposit and bank guarantees.
"Singh was habitual of demanding and accepting undue advantage from various contractors while being posted as the Chief Engineer, Construction, New Jalpaiguri, NFR. Deb was facilitating the delivery of the bribe to Singh through Om from Ray, the Hawala Operator in Delhi," the official said.
The CBI laid a trap and caught On while accepting a bribe of Rs 50 lakh on behalf of Singh, the money was delivered through the hawala channel. Later on Singh and other private persons were also caught.
Searches were conducted at the premises of Singh and others in various locations, including at Delhi, Narora, Guwahati, Siliguri and Aligarh which led to the recovery of Rs 47 lakh cash, laptops and several incriminating documents.
All the arrested accused will be produced later in the day before the competent court.
(With inputs from IANS)
