Railway engineer arrested in bribery case; huge wealth seized during CBI raids

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested a principal chief mechanical engineer of Central Railway and two others for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹1 lakh.

The CBI has also recovered cash of ₹23 lakhs during the searches. The officials said that the chief mechanical engineer allegedly received a bribe of for clearing bills of a Kolkata-based private company.

A 1985-batch officer of Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering (IRSME), Ashok Kumar Gupta, posted at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, was arrested after his driver was caught receiving the bribe on his behalf, the official said.

His arrest was followed by searches which led to the recovery of huge wealth from the officer’s premises and foreign bank accounts.

An investigation agency spokesperson said, “During searches at the premises of the principal chief mechanical engineer, approximately ₹23 lakh cash, jewellery including that of diamond worth around ₹40 lakh have been recovered.”

The official said investment details of around ₹8 crore, land and houses at Noida, Haridwar, Dehradun and Delhi worth more than ₹5 crore, three bank accounts in Singapore and the USA having deposits of around USD 2 lakh, an NRI bank account and other bank accounts in the name of the accused and family members have been found.

The CBI spokesperson said a bank locker has also been identified. The investigation agency has also arrested a partner in the Kolkata-based private company, Anand Sales Corporation, Aditya Tibrewal and Ashok Kumar Gupta’s driver Abdul Kalam Shaikh.

The spokesperson said, “It has been alleged that the bills of the Kolkata-based private company were pending with the mechanical department of Central Railway.

Ashok Kumar Gupta was in charge of the mechanical department of Central Railways. All tenders and work contracts were under his purview. The agency has alleged that Ashok Kumar Gupta has instructed his driver to receive a ₹1 lakh bribe from Aditya Tibrewal.

The CBI caught the said officer (who demanded the bribe) and his driver and also recovered the bribe amount. Later, the said partner of the Kolkata-based private company was also caught,” he said.

The arrests were followed by searches at 10 premises of the accused in Mumbai, Kolkata, Ghaziabad, Noida, Dehradun and Delhi.