3 top Central Railway officers booked for corruption

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked three top officers of the Central Railways' (CR) Pune Division for allegedly rigging the tendering process for a Rs 4 crore repair project in 2016.

An official statement read, "Officials of the Pune division of Central Railway, identified as R N Gupta, the then senior divisional engineer (co-ordination), Santosh Parage, senior divisional finance manager, and M S Rajput, the then senior divisional electrical engineer (Traction Distribution) entered into criminal conspiracy with each other and private contractor Rahul Choudhary of Mangalmurty Constructions, Pune."

"By abusing their official position, they recommended and awarded the tender to Mangalmurty Constructions at higher rates by way of manipulating the tender proceedings and disqualifying the lower bidder on the basis of fake and forged papers regarding credentials and thereby caused wrongful loss of Rs 49 lakh to Central Railway and corresponding gain to the private contractor and themselves," it added.

In lieu of this matter, a case under Sections 12-B, 420, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 has been registered against the accused individuals.