New Delhi: Seven officials of the North East Frontier Railway (NFR) were booked for allotment of six projects to Bhartia Infra Projects between 2016 and 2022 in lieu of a bribe of Rs 60 crore, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The FIR filed 17 January under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and 7, 9,10, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) stems from two interconnected cases of similar offences from the period of 2019-2023.
The previous FIR, registered 24 July last year, alleged that senior section NFR engineer Santosh Kumar “supervised” the Bhartia works since his posting in Silchar in 2019 till the date of registration of the case. Kumar and his family members received Rs 75 lakh as bribe for “smoothly passing the contract bills” of the company from 2019, it was alleged. .
Bhartia Infra was involved in the construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure, according to this FIR, adding that the firm was given 106 contracts in this period.
Earlier, in February last year, a separate FIR was filed in which Kumar, three other NFR officials and Guwahati-based company Tribeni Constructions are named as accused.
The CBI then started probing the NFR dealings during which it found that four NFR officials — Kumar, Rampal, Baktar Uddin Laskar and Ashish Badhuri — allegedly extended undue favours to Tribeni Construction.
Kailash Sharma, a Tribeni employee, informed the accountant of the firm that bills for a project were inflated by Rs 2 crore in collusion with which four NFR officials to accommodate bribes, according to the first FIR filed in February last year.
Sharma also informed the accountant that out of Rs 2 crore, Rs 20 lakh were given to the deputy chief engineer (Rampal) while Rs 35 lakh to assistant executive engineer (Laskar), it said.
He further revealed to a contractor that Kumar was to receive Rs 36 lakh and that the NFR official and Rampal was “pestering” for the entire bribe amount, according to the CBI. Sharma was then told to inform Kumar that Rs 20 lakh would be given on 4 February while Rs 16 lakh dispatched after the NFR released the contract amount.
The CBI on the same date registered the first FIR under relevant sections of IPC and PCA against nine individuals, Tribeni and unknown individuals. It then raided the premises of Kumar and seized crucial documents.
Trail unearths larger conspiracy
Kumar had joined as a junior engineer in 2009 at the office of deputy chief engineer, construction and was promoted as a senior section engineer in 2019, a position he occupied till the second FIR was filed against him in July last year.
He helped Bhartia Infra with easy clearance of contract bills for which he got a bribe of Rs 75 lakh and that amount was transferred to bank accounts of his father and wife, the CBI said.
Based on the new findings and new incidents of exchange of bribes, the CBI registered the second case against Kumar, his wife and father, Bhartia Infra and the directors who signed the bribe cheque.
Raids at the premises linked to Bhartia Infra resulted in the CBI seizing a statement for the period ranging from 1 May 2016 to 30 December 2023 that showed list of government officials who were allegedly paid approximately Rs 60 crore in bribes.
The latest FIR listed the six projects which Bhartia Infra got between 2016 and 2022 for which bribes were paid to Laskar, Rampal, and five other NFR officials. Other NFR officials named as accused include senior section engineer Rituraj Gogoi and assistant executive engineer Jitendra Jha.
Laskar and Rampal were also allegedly paid Rs 8 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh by Tribeni in 2023, according to the CBI.
In January, the CBI had carried out searches at 16 places in Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Delhi at the premises of the accused after filing the FIR. “Searches were conducted at 16 places in Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Delhi at the premises of the accused. This led to recovery of incriminating documents related to the case and investment/acquisition of property by the accused,” the CBI said in a statement Tuesday.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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