CBI arrests Railway official, 5 others in bribery case

Sealdah (SDAH):  A senior Railways official from Sealdah Division and five others were today arrested by CBI for allegedly receiving bribe in return of favouring business concerns of private companies in processing of bills and overlooking the omission against execution of various works.

The agency has arrested Kunal Mukherjee, Senior Divisional Engineer, managers of private companies Maruti Enterprises and Bee Tech Enterprises and three other private persons in an alleged bribe case of Rs 45,000.

“A case was registered alleging that two private persons managing the business affairs of Kolkata-based private firms had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer…during the year 2014,” CBI spokesperson said here today.

The official said these people allegedly paid huge amount of bribe to the Divisional Electrical Engineer of Railways for showing favour to their business concerns in processing of bills and overlooking the omission against the execution of various works.

“CBI laid a trap and arrested the Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer of Eastern Railway for accepting the bribe amount of Rs 45,000 from an employee of the said business concerns. The two Managers of said business concerns and their three employees were also arrested,” she said.

The spokesperson said searches in the official and residential premises of the accused were conducted.

ER officials confirmed that the engineer was arrested by the CBI on Thursday and raids were carried out at his office and residence. The CBI claimed that a trap was laid and Mukherjee was caught while accepting a bribe of Rs 45,000 from an employee of the private firms. The managers of the firms and three employees were subsequently arrested.

“Searches in the office and residence of the accused railway officer led to the seizure of about Rs 5.5 lakh in cash, fixed deposit receipts worth nearly Rs 25 lakh and documents relating to other investments. Documents revealed that he had lockers in four different banks and several bank accounts. Further investigation is on, Cash of approximately Rs 5.5 lakh, FDRs worth around Rs 25 lakh, lockers in four different banks, various bank accounts and documents relating to other investments have been recovered from the premises of the Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer,” she said.