CBI files fresh case of Rs 75 lakh bribe against Sr Section Engineer of NFR

The CBI has registered a fresh case of Rs 75 lakh alleged bribery against Senior Section Engineer of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone Santosh Kumar whom the agency arrested in February in connection with a Rs 2 crore bribe case, officials said.

The agency has alleged that the contractor Bhartia Infra Projects Limited (BIPL) involved in constructing and maintaining railway infrastructure, including tracks, bridges, tunnels, and stations, was awarded 106 contracts in the Northeast region from 2010 to 2023.

The CBI said Kumar, SSE, supervised the work of BIPL while he was posted at the office of the Deputy Chief Engineer, Construction-II, Northeast Frontier Railway, Silchar.

During the investigation of the bribery case against Kumar, now suspended, the central probe agency detected the transfers of Rs 75 lakh in his family members' account from accounts of BIPL, they said.

He had received the amount as an "undue advantage" from various accounts of BIPL in State Bank of India, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank to the accounts of Kumar's father, Ambika Saw, and wife, Pushpa Kumari, for smoothly passing the contracts bills during 2019 to 2022, the agency alleged.

The agency has booked Saw and Kumari along with BIPL in connection with the case along with Kumar.

Kumar joined the railways as Junior Engineer in Silchar in 2009. He rose to become Senior Section Engineer (SSE) after completion of training and was posted at the Deputy Chief Engineer Construction office in 2019, where he remained posted till his arrest in February, they said.

In February, the CBI had arrested Kumar while allegedly receiving a part payment of Rs 8 lakh of the total Rs 2 crore bribe from a construction company, they said. His superior, Deputy Chief Engineer Rampal, was also arrested in the operation, followed by searches at 19 locations.