SHILLONG/NEW DELHI, July 6: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested the Project Director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Shillong, along with two private persons for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 12 lakh from a contractor in exchange for clearing his pending bill of Rs 13.38 crore.
The arrested have been identified as NHAI Project Director Aanand Singh Chouhan, Punit Agarwal and Manish Agarwal. The case was registered by the CBI on July 1 following a complaint lodged by Mohd. Matlebuddin Ahmed, Director of Purvanchal Buildtech.
According to the CBI, Chouhan demanded an undue advantage of Rs 12 lakh from Ahmed to process the contractor’s outstanding bill.
On June 30, the NHAI official allegedly instructed Ahmed to pay an advance of Rs 4 lakh as part of the bribe and directed him to hand over the money to a private person in Guwahati. The said private person, identified as Punit Agarwal, did not accept the money himself and instead asked Ahmed to deliver it to another private person, Manish Agarwal.
Acting on the complaint, Ashutosh Singh, DIG, CBI ACB Guwahati, verified the allegations in the presence of independent witnesses. The agency then laid a trap and caught one of the private persons red-handed while demanding and accepting the bribe amount of Rs 4 lakh from the complainant.
Following the successful trap operation, CBI teams arrested Chouhan, Punit and Manish.
Searches were also conducted at their respective premises. Further investigation into the matter is under way, the agency said. (Agencies)
