In a major trap, the CBI on Sunday detained a senior Railway Engineering Service officer, Mahendra Singh Chauhan, on graft charge after two persons were caught while a bribe amount of ₹1 crore was changing hands in Dehradun. Subsequent searches led to a further seizure of over ₹1 crore.
The 1985-batch officer is posted as the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)/Construction-II, North Eastern Frontier Railway, in Assam’s Maligaon.
“The CAO allegedly took bribe to extend favour to a company for various works in the North-East Frontier Railway. Searches were conducted at 21 locations in Delhi, Uttarakhand, Assam, Tripura and West Bengal, which led to the seizure of about ₹54 lakh. An alleged bribe of ₹60 lakh, earlier paid to the said public servant, has also been recovered,” said a CBI official.
Among those named in the FIR are Deputy Chief Engineer Hem Chand Borah, Assistant Executive Engineer Laxmi Kant Verma, ABCI Infrastructures Private Limited’s director, Pawan Baid, company employee Bhupendra Rawat, and the officer’s relative, Indra Singh.
It was alleged that some senior officials of the North East Frontier Railway were indulging in corrupt practices along with private contractors. The contractors were being helped in securing contracts, processing of subsequent bills, release of payments and other works in lieu of illegal gratification.
Accordingly, the agency registered the case. As it turned out, the company’s director was in touch with the CAO in connection with various projects. The officer allegedly demanded bribe, following which ₹1 crore was being delivered at the Dehradun residence of Indra Singh. The company employee allegedly handed over the cash to the CAO’s relative when they were caught by the CBI officials.
