New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) The CBI has registered two separate cases against railway officials posted in the yard and parcel departments in Mumbai on allegations that they were indulging in large-scale bribery in taking parcels and facilitating the placement of Valuable Parcel Van (VPU) wagons at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, officials said.
Based on the findings of a recent joint surprise check conducted by the Railways Vigilance and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the agency has booked 10 persons, including the then chief parcel supervisors, chief yard master and deputy station manager (yard) posted at the parcel and yard departments at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LLT), Kurla, Central Railway, Mumbai.
The federal agency has found that the officials allegedly used UPI to receive bribes, with a total payment of Rs 8 lakh and Rs 5 lakh detected so far in two cases, the officials said.
Two types of parcels are booked by the Indian Railways — one through leaseholders who are allowed to transport the parcels up to a certain weight and the other kind of parcels that are booked directly by it.
During the surprise check, large-scale irregularities were detected in the handling of parcels in terms of weights and other issues, based on which the first FIR was lodged against the then Chief Parcel Supervisor (General) Janardan Deshpande, Chief Parcel Supervisor Sanjay Ghadge and agents Arjun Jaiswal and Suryabhan B Dipankar.
A scrutiny of their mobile phones showed that Deshpande allegedly received Rs 8.16 lakh from Jaiswal from August 1, 2022 to June 23, 2023, the CBI FIR said.
The second case is based on a surprise check finding that yard department officials were taking bribes from private agents in the form of cash and also through UPI payments into the accounts of the pointsmen posted at the yard.
“It was further alleged that the bribes were given for facilitating the placement of VPU wagons at the terminus. It was also alleged that the accused received bribes from the agents and delivered a part of them to their superiors,” a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
According to the modus operandi detailed in the FIR, the leaseholders are given three hours to load and unload parcels. If the loading and unloading is not completed in three hours, demurrage and wharfage charges are levied on the leaseholders.
The surprise check showed that the chief yard master’s office allowed these private vendors extra time to load and unload parcels, causing wrongful gain to these private vendors, in return for bribes through UPI and cash.
The agency has booked Chief Yard Master Pranay Mukund, deputy station managers Girdhari Lal Saini, Jayant Maurya and Pradeep Gautam, shunting managers Mithai Lal Yadav and Rakesh Karande, pointsmen from the chief yard master’s office Mithilesh Kumar and Raunit Raj, besides agents Ramdeep Giri and Dipankar.
“Searches were conducted at around eight locations in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Nashik etc., including at residential premises of the accused, which led to recovery of incriminating documents, mobile phones etc.,” the CBI spokesperson said. PTI ABS RC RC
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