HYDERABAD: A section officer of Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) Limited, Gurgaon, who earlier worked as personal secretary to former minister late G Venkata Swamy and former minister T Subbarami Reddy, is under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Hyderabad, for duping railway job aspirants from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The official, Ravindranath Pandey, is said to have collected huge amounts from the aspirants and duped them by not securing jobs to them in the railways.
CBI officials, who registered a case against Ravindranath Pandey, said the section officer was personal secretary to Venkata Swamy and Subbirami Reddy when he duped around 14 persons from the erstwhile united AP.
According to CBI officials, Pandey sent a proposal through one Abdul Nabhi of Ramagundam, that one of the aspirant, A Narsimhulu and 13 others would get appointment in the railways under minister’s and Railway Board chairman quota by influencing higher officers of the railway department. For this purpose, Pandey had demanded Rs 5 lakh from each person.
‘‘Around 14 persons including Narsimhulu, approached Pandey who persuaded the victims to pay Rs 1 lakh each as advance and balance of Rs 4 lakh each after getting appointment orders. Altogether, the victims paid an amount of Rs 16 lakh to Pandey and some amounts were also deposited in Pandey’s bank account,’’ the CBI officials said.
When the victims failed to get the job offers, they started demanding to return the amount paid by them. Pandey promised to return the amount but did not.
The victims, who realised that they were duped, approached the higher officials of RITES where Pandey is currently working as section officer in Gurgaon.
Following a complaint, the CBI Hyderabad unit registered cases against Pandey under Section 420 (cheating) and Section 9 and 13 (2) and are further investigating.