CBI arrests Railway engineer in Rs 1 lakh bribery case; huge wealth seized during searches

New Delhi: The CBI has arrested a principal chief mechanical engineer of Central Railways in Mumbai for allegedly receiving a Rs 1 lakh bribe for clearing bills of a Kolkata-based private company, officials said Tuesday.

A 1985-batch officer of Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering (IRSME), Ashok Kumar Gupta, posted at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, was arrested after his driver was caught receiving the bribe on his behalf, they said.

Searches followed by his arrest led to the recovery of huge wealth from the officer's premises and foreign bank accounts.

"During searches at the premises of the principal chief mechanical engineer, approximately Rs 23 lakh cash, jewellery including that of diamond worth around Rs 40 lakh have been recovered," a CBI spokesperson said.

The official said investment details of around Rs 8 crore, land and houses at Noida, Haridwar, Dehradun and Delhi worth more than Rs 5 crore, three bank accounts in Singapore and the USA having deposits of around USD 2 lakh, an NRI bank account and other bank accounts in the name of the accused and family members have been found.

A bank locker has also been identified, he said.

The CBI also arrested Aditya Tibrewal, a partner in the Kolkata-based private company Anand Sales Corporation, and Gupta's driver Abdul Kalam Shaikh, officials said.

"It has been alleged that the bills of the Kolkata-based private company were pending with the mechanical department of Central Railway," a CBI spokesperson said.

Gupta was in charge of the mechanical department of Central Railways with all tenders and work contracts under his purview. It is alleged that the official had instructed Shaikh, his driver, to receive a Rs 1 lakh bribe from Tibrewal.

"The CBI caught the said officer (who demanded the bribe) and his driver and also recovered the bribe amount. Later, the said partner of the Kolkata-based private company was also caught," he said.

The arrests were followed by searches at 10 premises of the accused in Mumbai, Kolkata, Ghaziabad, Noida, Dehradun and Delhi.