CBI books four North-East Frontier Railway officials in corruption case
Northeast Frontier Railway Headquarters at Maligaon, Guwahati.
Bill fudged and excess payments made for projects: FIR
They were allegedly approved by the then DyCE, resulting in a loss of ₹7.81 crore to the Railway, and corresponding gains to the accused persons
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked four North-East Frontier Railway (NFR) officials and two top functionaries of a private company for allegedly causing a loss of crores of rupees to the exchequer by tampering with bills raised against the execution of work contracts.
The accused officials have been identified as the then DyCE/C S. P. Deshmukh, AXEN (Construction) Pradip Kumar Sharma, AFA Tapeshwar Rabha and one Bimal Dey and contract company Nayak Infrastructure Private Limited’s managing director Ananta Charan Nayak and director Biswajit Nayak have also been named.
It is alleged that the Price Variation Contract (PVC) bills of works along the Silchar-Siarang Line under the NFR were manipulated and excess payments made to the contractor for projects related to construction of tunnels, bridges and other allied works.
During a sample check of the PVC bills passed by the Silchar Construction Unit, senior Railway officials found that bills related to seven works were indeed tampered with, allegedly in collusion with the engineers and officials of the Finance Department (Construction) in Silchar and Maligaon.
The FIR alleges that the company had submitted forged bills by prefixing digit ‘1’ to the actual amounts.
A bill for over ₹1.80 crore was allegedly changed to ₹11.80 crore, another bill for more than ₹2.92 crore became over ₹12.92 crore. Eight such instances were detected.
While it is not clear if all such bills were cleared, the FIR mentions that some accused officials had made recommendations for payments against various bills.
They were allegedly approved by the then deputy chief engineer, resulting in a loss of ₹7.81 crore to the Railway, and corresponding gains to the accused persons.
Earlier in July of this year, the CBI had booked a senior public relations officer of Northeast Frontier Railways for allegedly cheating the organisation to the tune of Rs 100 crore by sanctioning payments for fake bills of tender advertisements in papers not in circulation. Senior Public Relations Officer Dilip Chandra Bora, office superintendents Haradhan Dey and Babul Chandra Medhi, Chief Publicity Inspector MMY Alam, Accounts Assistant Hitesh Deka and Senior Cashier Prabir Das Purakayastha has been booked by the CBI in the case.
Source: The Hindu
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