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CBI officials on Thursday raided 14 locations in Guwahati in connections with one Rs 158 crore scam in the Northeast Frontier Railway (Construction) headquarters in Maligaon.

Sources informed Northeast Now that CBI on Thursday raided offices, official quarters and private residences of six NF Railway officials, who were directly involved in the scam.

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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 swindling of over Rs 158 crores of public money.

The NF Railway (Construction) is responsible for implementation of all construction works in the eight states of northeast India, parts of West Bengal and Bihar.  

Sources said, Dilip Borah, who is a senior public relations officer of the NF Railway is the prime accused in the case.

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The six railway officers, between 2014 and 2018, swindled Rs 158 crore by issuing advertisements to a large number of bogus and non-existing newspapers and magazines in Bihar and Central India.  

The CBI seized huge amount of documents, bank passbooks and computer hard discs from all the 14 locations for investigations.  

Though the CBI has not made any official statement on the raids, sources said, the magnitude of the scam could be even bigger than Rs 158 crores.  

Some more senior officials of the NF Railway are suspected to be involved in the scam, the sources said.

The CBI officials on Thursday afternoon started interrogating all the six officials in different locations, and some of them may also be arrested, the sources said.

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While the officials issued advertisements of tenders to bogus and non-existent newspapers and magazines, it also helped a section of contractors and suppliers to get the contracts from the back door.

“When the advertisements are published in bogus newspapers, how will the genuine contractors and suppliers get to know about the work,” the sources said.

Taking advantage of the invisible advertisements, a section of dishonest contractors got the construction jobs by bribing the senior officials.