CBI arrests project director of NHAI for graft

The CBI has arrested a Project Director of National Highway Authority of India for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh from a contractor who wanted to clear his pending bills with the Authority.

The CBI has arrested a Project Director of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh from a contractor who wanted to clear his pending bills with the Authority.

HT Image

The CBI had been monitoring Avdesh Kumar Singh from the Project Implementation Unit of NHAI’s Dhanbad (Bihar) sector. Singh was arrested from a hotel in South Delhi last night after a brief resistance, the CBI said in New Delhi on Thursday.

The CBI spokesman said in a release that the complainant had got construction contract worth Rs 2.25 crore last year for which a payment of Rs 60 lakh was still pending with the NHAI and needed clearance of the arrested accused.

The accused official had demanded a bribe of Rs 10 lakh in two installments of Rs five lakh each from the complainant for clearing his pending bills.

The contractor could only arrange Rs 2.5 lakh which the accused agreed to accept as part payment with a promise that rest amount of the bribe will be paid on clearance of the bill, the spokesman said.

Singh invited the contractor to a hotel in Lajpat Nagar area where he was staying.

As soon as he was returning to his room after accepting the bribe, Singh was intercepted by the CBI. Finding himself trapped, he pushed the agency sleuths and made an unsuccessful attempt to escape, the CBI said.