New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS) Two CPWD engineers and two private persons were arrested by the CBI while the two government employees were taking a bribe of Rs 6 lakh for clearing bills submitted by a firm, an official said on Tuesday. Around Rs 55 lakh cash was recovered during subsequent searches.

Jai Prakash, Executive Engineer (Civil), S-Division, Central Public Works Department (CPWD), R.K. Puram, Prabhat Chaurasiya, Assistant Engineer (Civil), S-Division, CPWD, Chanakyapuri, and two private persons were arrested on Monday, said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In all, eight engineers and three private persons were named in the FIR registered by the CBI, said a statement, adding that searches were conducted at 10 places and Rs 55 lakh cash was recovered.

They have been booked for penal offences including criminal conspiracy, demand of undue advantage by a public servant, bribing of a public servant, bribing of a public servant by a commercial organisation and abetment, said the CBI statement.

The probe agency registered the case on Monday against 12 accused, including the four arrested accused and a company named Shubham Electricals. The private persons named in the FIR include Shubham Goel, Rajesh Goel and Vijay Kant Shukla.

The CBI laid the trap on receiving information that the accused private person would be paying a bribe of Rs 6 lakh to the accused EE on Aug 11.

The CBI FIR said that the bribe was to be given in lieu of extending undue favours to the private contractors in awarding the contract, allowing poor quality construction materials and clearing the inflated bills, causing wrongful loss to the government exchequer and wrongful gain to the private contractors and themselves with scant regard to the safety of the public at large.

Source information revealed that Shubham Goel of Shubham Electricals, a private contractor, was awarded multiple contracts by CPWD in the Chanakyapuri Subdivision.

Subsequently, Jai Prakash, Executive Engineer, demanded 4 per cent of every bill that is passed for payment as his bribe share from Shubham Goel, the FIR said.

While discussing the demand, Shubham Goel advised Prabhat Chaurasiya to obtain 5 per cent of the bribe money from other private contractors so that he could get 1 per cent as his share after the deduction of 4 per cent of Jai Prakash, the FIR said.

–IANS

rch/dan