New Delhi, Nov 19 (IANS) In a major crackdown on alleged corruption within the East Central Railway (ECR), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested four people — including a senior railway officer and officials of a private construction firm — in a bribery case involving nearly Rs 1 crore, the agency said on Wednesday.

The arrests followed a coordinated operation based on what the agency described as “reliable information” about a nexus between public servants and private contractors.

Those arrested include Alok Kumar, Deputy Chief Engineer (Construction), ECR Hajipur; Alok Kumar Das, Office Superintendent in the same division; Govind Bhullar alias Aman Bhullar, Project Manager of M/s JPW Infratech; and Suraj Prasad, an employee of the same firm.

According to the CBI, the agency registered a case on November 17 after receiving credible inputs that the Deputy Chief Engineer, his subordinates, and officials of JPW Infratech were allegedly engaged in giving and taking bribes.

They were reportedly providing undue favours to the firm by overlooking the use of inferior construction material in ongoing railway works, thereby causing wrongful loss to the government and illegal gains to the accused.

Investigators laid a trap the same day, during which Office Superintendent Alok Kumar Das was allegedly caught red-handed accepting a bribe from representatives of the construction company.

Both Bhullar and Prasad, present at the spot, were immediately taken into custody. In a significant recovery, the CBI seized Rs 98,81,500 in cash, stored in eight envelopes, packets and bags marked with different names and identifiers.

“A huge cash amount of Rs 98 lakh 81 thousand and 500 kept in 8 different envelopes/packets/bags describing different marks/names were also recovered outside the office of the accused public servant,” the CBI said in its press note.

“Further, FIR-named accused Dy CE (Construction), ECR, Hajipur was also detained, interrogated and arrested in the case,” it added.

The money was found outside the office of the accused public servant. Following the trap, the CBI also detained and interrogated Deputy Chief Engineer Alok Kumar, who was later arrested after his alleged involvement was established.

Search operations have so far been carried out at 11 locations — five in Bihar, one in Jharkhand, three in Chhattisgarh and two in West Bengal — with more searches underway.

The arrested accused were produced before a competent court, which has granted custodial interrogation to the CBI as the agency continues its investigation into the alleged bribery network within the railway construction division.

–IANS

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