BENGALURU: A senior railway clerk attached to the Personnel department of the Mysuru Division was caught red-handed by CBI officials on Thursday afternoon when he was accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000 from a family member of a railway employee who was given a job by the Railways on 'compassionate grounds'.
LK Shrikant was collecting the first installment of the Rs 1 lakh bribe after he had sought to hand over an appointment order to the youngster, whose mother lost her life on the railway tracks on the course of her duty as a pointswoman.
Shrikant, Office Superintendent in the Senior Divisional Personnel Office department, joined Railways in 2011 and has been posted in the section that deals with 'Compassionate Grounds' appointmentments three
years ago, a Railways official said.
He literally walked into a trap laid for him on Thursday afternoon by the prospective employee (name withheld) with the help of the CBI. Another official said that the youngster’s appointment was approved on August 20.
Shrikant had demanded a sum of Rs 1 lakh to handover the appointment order to him. "The individual filed a complaint with the CBI who visited the Mysuru Divisional Railway Manager's office around 11.30 am. Shrikanth was not to be found," he said.
They later caught the employee redhanded inside the premises of the college when he was accepting the bribe of Rs 25,000 from the individual whose appointment order he was withholding.
Asked about the possible action that South Western Railway could take against him, a top official said, "He will first spend 90 days in the custody of the CBI. This is a criminal case. If convincted, he will be dismissed by the Senior Divisional Personnel Officer."