VIJAYAWADA: CBI sleuths on Sunday arrested a senior section engineer of South Central Railway while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 15 lakh from a contractor in Vijayawada. The arrested official was identified as Bapiraju, senior section engineer in the office of the Chief Signal and Telecommunications Engineer (CSTE) Projects, South Central Railway, Vijayawada.
A private person identified as Srichand was also arrested. The CBI registered a case on August 16 against the engineer, four representatives of private companies, and unidentified public servants and private persons in connection with an alleged demand for bribe. According to a CBI official release, a joint venture of two private companies were awarded an Automatic Block Signalling project worth Rs 179.50 crore by South Central Railway.
The joint venture had claimed a bonus of around Rs 7 crore for completing the work ahead of schedule. The agency alleged that officials of CSTE Projects had manipulated dates in the bonus file to extend undue favour to the joint venture and facilitate approval of its claim.