Railway officers charged by CBI for demanding bribe of Rs10 lakh from contractor

The CBI has arrested two senior Railway officials for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a contractor for clearing his bills, officials said Monday. Neeraj Puri Goswami, Senior Divisional Signal and Telecom engineer (Sr. DSTE), and P.K. Singh, Divisional Signal and Telecom Engineer (DSTE), both posted in North Central Railway, Allahabad, have been arrested on a complaint from a contractor, they said.

It is alleged that they demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh each for a Rs 1.43-crore tender allotted to his firm in March 2017. "A case has been registered against the accused on the basis of a complaint," CBI spokesperson said.

They allegedly threatened to terminate the tender on the count of slow progress of work, if he did not put his signature on the measurement book, a periodical record of work done. "The CBI laid a trap and caught the accused while demanding and accepting an alleged bribe of Rs. 10 lakh from the complainant," the spokesperson said.

The agency carried out searches at the residence of the officers during which incriminating documents were seized, he said. "Rs. 63.06 lakh in cash, gold jewellery, fixed deposits and other investment papers were recovered from the premises of the accused, he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)