CBI seeks custody of 3 railway officers arrested for bribes for wagon allotment

CBI officials said three railway IRTS officials were not cooperating with the probe and the agency needed more time to access their bank accounts

PATNA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought seven-day remand for the three Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officials arrested for allegedly accepting bribes, saying it wants to ascertain if other officials are part of the racket.

CBI arrested three officials of East Central Railway on Monday on charges that they received bribes for priority allotment of railway wagons (HT File Photo)

In its request to the Patna special judge designated for CBI cases, the agency officials said the three senior officials were not cooperating with the investigation and the agency needed more time to access their bank accounts and other assets that may have been accumulated by the officials.

The East Central Railway’s chief freight transport manager (CFTM) Sanjay Kumar at its Hajipur headquarters and senior divisional operating managers (DOMs) at Samastipur and Sonepur divisions, Rupesh Kumar and Sachin Mishra, respectively were arrested on Monday along with three businessmen, two from Kolkata and the third from West Bengal’s North Dinajpur.

Sanjay Kumar is a 1996 batch IRTS officer while Rupesh Kumar and Sachin Mishra are 2011 bach officers.

According to CBI, the three IRTS officials had arrived at an arrangement with the businessmen for bribes on a monthly basis for out-of-turn allotment and priority allotment of freight wagons and extra stacking time.

According to officials, raids were conducted at 16 locations, including Patna, Sonpur, Hajipur, Samastipur, and Kolkata, which led to the recovery of various incriminating documents and cash worth ₹46.50 lakh.

CBI told the special CBI judge that Nawal Ladha of the Kolkata-based Abha Agro Industries Pvt. Ltd. who was also arrested, sent ₹23.5 lakh to Patna, Sonepur and Samastipur in envelopes containing bribes of ₹6 lakh, ₹5 lakh, ₹3 lakh, ₹2.75 lakh, ₹50,000 and ₹25,000 to be delivered to various railway officials. One sports utility vehicle with six envelopes containing the cash to be delivered to various officers of the East Central Railway (ECR) was also recovered.