Mumbai, March 10 – The CBI arrested a senior Central Railway official and two others in an alleged bribery case involving Rs 40 lakh, and seized cash and jewellery worth Rs 1.47 crore during raids across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and Karjat, an official said on Tuesday.
Ramesh Kumar Chauve, Chief Electrical Distribution Engineer, Central Railway; Anshul Varma (private individual); and Kanay Varma (private individual) were arrested on Monday following raids at five locations, the CBI said in a statement.
The CBI registered a case against Chauve, an officer of the Indian Railway Services of Electrical Engineers, 2003 Batch, who is currently working as Chief Electrical Distribution Engineer at Central Railway, the CBI said.
The case involves alleged irregularities in the awarding of a tender worth Rs 40.54 crore to a private company.
The accused Chief Electrical Distribution Engineer acted in collusion with stakeholders of the private company in awarding the tender, demanding a bribe of Rs 40 lakh or 1 per cent of the tender value, the CBI said.
The CBI laid a trap and caught the accused Chief Electrical Distribution Engineer after he accepted a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a private individual.
The federal probe agency recovered the Rs 10 lakh bribe from Chauve's office.
Searches were conducted at five locations, including in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and Karjat, at the premises of the three accused, the CBI said.
During the searches, Rs 90.79 lakh in cash and gold jewellery weighing 241.30 grams, silver jewellery weighing 2577 grams amounting to Rs 42.52 lakh, and other documents related to investments were recovered, the CBI said.
Additionally, Rs 3.85 lakh in cash was also recovered from Chauve's office, bringing the total seizure to Rs 1.47 crore, the CBI said.
Besides these, other incriminating documents were also recovered during the CBI's searches, the statement said.