NF Railways Bribery Case: All You Need To Know

In a latest development in the Northeastern Frontier Railways bribery case, the names of the accused have been revealed according to the FIR registered by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

So far three arrests have been made for criminal conspiracy, bribing of a public servant and bribing a public servant by a commercial organisation.

The Chief Administrative Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Maligaon Mahendra Singh Chauhan, NFR Agartala Deputy Chief Engineer Hem Chand Borah, NFR Agartala Assistant Executive Engineer Laxmi Kant Verma are in police custody.

The other accused are ABCI Infrastructures Guwahati Director Pawan Baid, Bhupendra Rawat of Delhi, and Indra Singh of Uttarakhand and ABCI Infrastructures New Delhi among unknown others. Details on their arrest is not yet ascertained.

The accused have been booked under IPC Section 120 – B and PC Act 1988 Sections 7,8,9, & 10 Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.

As per the FIR registered, "Public servants along with certain contractors and unknown others have entered into a criminal conspiracy with the sole- predetermined intention of misappropriation of public funds in the matter of awarding of contract agreement, preparation of measure book, processing of bills, early release of payment against bills, early release of security deposit and bank guarantees in the ongoing project works of construction in northeast frontier railways".

The filed complained by the CBI also revealed that the accused public servants were in the habit of "demanding and acceptance of undue advantage from contractor Pawan Baid and others".

On January 15, a bribe sum of rupees one crore was arranged by Pawan Baid and his employee Bhupendra Rawat collected the amount to deliver Chauhan from Guwahati to Delhi through hawala. An amount of rupees 60 lakhs was also delivered previously from Baid to Chauhan.

In addition, the report also stated that Baid had given a huge sum of bribe to Laxmi Kant Verma, and Hem Chand Borah.

CBI laid down a trap to nab the officer after it received reliable information that he had demanded a bribe of rupees one crore. They were caught red-handed. The bribe money was recovered and further searches are underway at 20 locations in five states.

Further investigation is underway.