CBI on Sunday raided multiple locations in Guwahati connected with a corruption case related to Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) construction and arrested a senior official in a bribery case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out the raids in several locations including the NF Railway (Construction) headquarters at Maligaon in Guwahati.
During the raid, the central investigation agency arrested the chief administrative officer of NF Railway (Construction) Mahendra Singh Chauhan in a bribery case involving Rs 1 crore.
The investigating agency recovered the entire Rs 1 crore bribe money.
A CBI official said, “We have caught the railway official when he was taking the bribe. The entire Rs 1 crore bribery has been seized.”
The CBI official termed the recovery of the huge amount as the biggest entrapment case in the history of the investigating agency.
Chauhan was posted at NF Railway (Construction) headquarters in Maligaon.
Chauhan is a 1985 batch officer of the Indian Railways Engineering Service.
He is allegedly involved in taking bribe from private companies for extending favours in contracts at NF Railway.
Sources said during the raid, Rs 54 lakh was recovered from the house of Chouhan.
CBI has also raided the house of Hem Ch Bora, additional chief engineer of NF Railway (Construction) at Zoo Road in Guwahati.
The CBI sleuths recovered Rs 18 lakh from Bora’s house, sources said.
Bora was involved in the NF Railway construction works in Tripura.
Also read: CBI raids Northeast Frontier Railway headquarters
Sources said many incriminating documents have been recovered during the raid.
CBI carried out raids and searches in 20 locations in 5 states including Assam, Delhi and Uttrakhand.
Many more officers of NF Railway (Construction) are likely to be arrested, sources said.
CBI officials on July 11, 2019 raided 14 locations in Guwahati in connections with one Rs 158 crore scam in the Northeast Frontier Railway (Construction) headquarters in Maligaon.
According to a Northeast Now report CBI raided offices, official quarters and private residences of six NF Railway officials, who were directly involved in the scam.
Acting on a report, the CBI registered a suo-moto case (number 06/2019) against six officials of NF Railway (Construction), who were directly involved in the swindling of over Rs 158 crores of public money.
The NF Railway (Construction) is responsible for the implementation of all construction works in the eight states of Northeast India, parts of West Bengal and Bihar.