CBI arrests 5 railway officers, including 1 in Mumbai, in bribery case

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested five railway officers, including Sanjay Tiwari, a deputy chief commercial manager working with the Western Railway (WR) at Churchgate, in connection with alleged demand and acceptance of bribes for favouring candidates in an upcoming railway departmental examination.

Searches were conducted at the residential and official premises of the accused persons at 11 locations, including Vadodara, Gujarat, which led to the recovery of a gold bar weighing 650 grams, around ₹5 lakh in cash, electronic gadgets, and documents.

The arrests were made in Maharashtra and Gujarat after the CBI unearthed a bribery network involving two IRPS (Indian Railway Personnel Service) officers and others, in the office of the divisional railway manager, Vadodara, Western Railway (WR), amid allegations of collection of huge bribes for favouring candidates in the Limited Departmental Examination of WR. Those arrested included a senior divisional personnel officer and divisional personnel officer, WR, Vadodara, a deputy station superintendent, a nursing superintendent (Divisional Railway Hospital), Sabarmati, and a private person.

A case was registered on Tuesday by the CBI against the divisional personnel officer, deputy chief commercial manager and deputy station superintendent of Railways and the private person on the basis of allegations that the accused officials in conspiracy with the private person and unknown others were collecting money from the candidates appearing in a railway departmental examination. It was also alleged that the accused divisional personnel officer of WR had directed an accused to compile a list of at least 10 candidates willing to pay bribe for selection in the said examination. The accused deputy chief commercial manager of WR had, thereafter, allegedly contacted the deputy superintendent, Vadodara, and the private person to contact such candidates and collect bribes from them.

It was also alleged that an accused had contacted a jeweller in Vadodara to purchase around 400 grams of gold in lieu of cash without generating any invoice.

During CBI’s investigation, it was revealed that the recovered gold of 650 grams, which was found with the accused nursing superintendent, had allegedly been obtained by him from a jeweller on a payment of Rs. 57 lakh and it was to be delivered to another accused in the case.