Vijayawada, Aug 16 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested a senior Railway official and a private person in a bribery case involving Rs 15 lakh, simultaneously launching searches at the premises of the accused in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Pithapuram and Hyderabad.
Senior Section Engineer Bapiraju in the office of Chief Signal and Telecommunications Engineer (CSTE) Projects at South Central Railway in Vijayawada, and Srichand, son of Managing Director of Yella Constructions, were arrested by CBI after receiving a tip off, an official statement said.
The CBI laid a trap on Sunday and caught the accused Senior Section Engineer red-handed while accepting the bribe of Rs 15 lakh from the Srichand, as a reward for sanction and release of the bonus amount to the company of his father.
The bribe amount of Rs 15 lakh was recovered during the trap, the CBI said, adding that the two accused will be presented before a Special CBI Court at Vijayawada on Monday.
The CBI registered the case immediately on Sunday against the Senior Section Engineer, four representatives of private companies and unknown public servants and private persons, for the alleged demand and acceptance of the bribe.
“Information was received that the joint venture of two private companies, Ganapathi Engineering Works and Yella Constructions, which had been awarded an Automatic Block Signaling work of Rs 179.50 crore by South Central Railway, claimed a bonus of about Rs 7 crore for completing the work before time,” the CBI said.
The information revealed that officials of CSTE Projects, South Central Railway at Vijayawada manipulated/altered the dates pertaining to the bonus file to extend undue favour to the Joint Venture and facilitated approval of the bonus claim, the central probe agency added.
The Managing Director of the private company had told the accused Senior Section Engineer on August 16 that his son would deliver the bribe amount enroute to Vijayawada from Visakhapatnam, the federal probe agency said.
–IANS
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