CBI arrests railway officials in UP for 'bribery' in Gati Shakti project

    New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) The CBI has arrested five people, including a deputy chief engineer of the Northern Railway posted in Lucknow, for alleged bribery in the Centre's flagship Gati Shakti project, officials said on Tuesday.
    The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Jimmy Singh alias Ajeet Kumar Singh, an employee of the New Delhi-based railway contractor, Tangent Infratech Private Limited, for allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh to Deputy Chief Engineer Vivek Kushwaha, who is handling the Gati Shakti project in NR, Lucknow.
    The bribe was allegedly paid on the instructions of Praveen Kumar Singh of the company.
    During the operation, the bribe amount of Rs 80,000 given by Jimmy Singh to Anjum Nisha, Office Superintendent, NR-Lucknow, was also recovered from the latter's possession, the officials said.
    This money included the bribe amount received by Ashok Ranjan, Senior Section Engineer (Drawings), through Nisha, they added.
    The central probe agency has arrested Kushwaha, Jimmy Singh, Ranjan, Nisha and Praveen Kumar Singh of Tangent Infratech, while Assistant Executive Engineer K K Mishra, who had allegedly received a bribe of Rs 2.75 lakh, is absconding, the officials in the know of the developments said.
    "Searches were conducted at four places at Lucknow, six places at Varanasi and one place at Ghaziabad. Incriminating documents have been recovered during these searches," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
    The five arrested accused were on Tuesday produced before a special CBI court in Lucknow, which remanded them in judicial custody till July 28, she added.
    On Monday, the CBI had registered an FIR against senior officials of the Northern Railway (NR) and the North Eastern Railway (NER) posted in Lucknow and Varanasi for allowing the unhindered passage of irregular bills from Gati Shakti project contractor Trident Infratech in exchange for hefty bribes.
    The central probe agency has cited instances of alleged corruption in the Lucknow and Varanasi offices of the railways, concerning the Gati Shakti project in Bhadohi that has been granted to Praveen Kumar Singh of Tangent Infratech and Sikander Ali.
    The project was carried out under the supervision of Kushwaha.
    The CBI has accused Kushwaha of approving inflated bills in exchange for bribes to profit the private contractor and himself.
    Besides Kushwaha and Singh, the CBI had also named as accused Tangent Infratech and its employee, Jimmy Singh, who was allegedly involved in one of the multiple bribe transactions listed by the agency in its FIR.
    The CBI has named several NER officers, including Senior Divisional Engineer Rakesh Ranjan, Office Superintendent in the DRM office Manish, Senior Section Engineer (Works) Abhishek Gupta, Accounts Section Head Yogesh Gupta, and Sushil Kumar Rai, senior clerk in the office of the assistant engineer.
    The CBI FIR registered on "source information" has also flagged a bribe payment of Rs 2 lakh allegedly delivered by Jimmy Singh to Ranjan in June, an amount of Rs 50,000 given to Gupta in April and routine payments to Manish, Gupta and Rai for expediting the passing of bills.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)