Guwahati, Jan 18: Further searches conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at Siliguri and Cooch Behar in connection with a bribery case have led to the recovery of about Rs 1.28 crore along with other incriminating articles, an official statement said on Wednesday.
An additional divisional railway manager (ADRM) posted in Guwahati, and six others, including private contractors, have been arrested in the case already.
During the searches conducted on Wednesday, the cash and articles were recovered from the premises of a contractor named Bishnu Gupta, his brother Suresh Gupta and another contractor Dilip Ghosh (all named in the FIR).
With the latest recovery, the total amount of cash recovered from all accused has now come to around Rs 1.75 crore.
Searches were earlier conducted at the premises of ADRM and others in various locations including, including New Delhi, Narora, Guwahati, Siliguri and Aligarh, which led to recovery of cash of about Rs 47 lakh, laptops and several incriminating documents.
Notably, a case was registered on January 14, 2023 against the ADRM, Guwahati and other private persons, including contractors.
“It was alleged that the accused had entered into a conspiracy with the intention of showing undue favours to the private contractors in awarding contract agreements, preparation of measurement book, processing running account bills, early release of payment against pending bills and for the ongoing work of construction in Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) as well as for early release of security deposit and bank guarantees,” the statement said.
It was further alleged that the ADRM, Guwahati was habitual of demanding and accepting undue advantage from various contractors while being posted as chief engineer, construction, New Jalpaiguri, NFR.
It was also alleged that a contractor was facilitating the delivery of the bribe to the ADRM, Guwahati through his acquaintance from a hawala operator in Delhi.
CBI had laid a trap and caught an acquaintance of ADRM, Guwahati while accepting a bribe of Rs 50 lakh on behalf of the ADRM delivered through the hawala channel. The ADRM and six others were also caught.
“All the seven arrested accused have been produced before the competent court and remanded in police custody. Currently, five accused are in police custody while two are in judicial custody. Investigation is on,” the statement said.