Court grants bail to railway officer arrested for accepting bribe of ₹25L

MUMBAI: CBI court grants bail to Saurabh Prasad, a railway manager arrested for accepting a ₹25 lakh bribe from a contractor related to a tender.

MUMBAI: A special CBI court recently granted bail to Saurabh Prasad, the divisional railway manager (Waltair division) of East Coast Railways arrested for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹25 lakh from a contractor in Mumbai in connection with a tender. The CBI apprehended Prasad in November 2024 when he came to Mumbai to collect the bribe.

Court grants bail to railway officer arrested for accepting bribe of ₹25L

Along with Prasad, CBI also arrested two businessmen who are proprietors of firms in Mumbai and Pune. As per the prosecution, the railway officer expedited the bill clearance of Hindustan Fiber Glass Works Pvt Ltd, who were imposed a hefty penalty due to their delay in carrying out work for railways.

Hindustan Fiber had raised a bill of ₹3.17 crore which was pending with the railways, but the latter had imposed a hefty penalty on them due to their delay in work. As per the CBI, one of the accused private persons had met the railway officer at his office on September 9, with a request to get the penalty lowered and the pending bill cleared in lieu of an assurance that an illegal gratification would be paid for the favours. Thereafter, the accused railway officer had allegedly contacted a senior divisional mechanical engineer and impressed upon him that the pending bill must be cleared on priority.

During the probe, it was revealed that following the intervention by the railway officer, the penalty imposed on the contractor was lowered and the pending bill was cleared for payment in late October 2024.

The CBI laid a trap on November 16, 2024, and caught Prasad while he was carrying the bag containing the money from his car. During investigation, it was revealed that after the pending bill worth ₹2.7 crore was credited in the bank account of Hindustan Fibre Glass, the firm transferred ₹30 lakh to HRK Solutions, owned by third accused Anand Bhagat and ₹75 lakh to DN Marketing owned by second accused Sunil Rathod.

The special CBI judge Amit Kharkar granted bail to the railway official, observing that the charge against Prasad was that he accepted illegal gratification worth ₹25 lakh, which was done in lieu of clearing of bills and reduction of penalty imposed on Hindustan Fibre and Glass Work Pvt. Ltd.

The court observed that the accused is already suspended, and the statement of witnesses have been recorded, adding that there was no possibility that the accused can tamper with the articles and records of the CBI.

“The offence alleged to be committed by applicant provides for imprisonment up to seven years. Considering the nature of allegation and the severity of punishment, the accused can be released on bail,” held the court.