CBI recovers Rs 1.27cr during searches in CPWD bribe case

CBI has recovered cash of Rs 1.27 crore from a hawala dealer who was allegedly involved in arranging the money for payment of a bribe to a Superintendent Engineer of CPWD nabbed in a case of accepting illegal gratification.
CBI spokesperson said Rs 1.27 crore was recovered from a hawala dealer whose name cropped up during the examination of CPWD Engineer Vinod Kumar Asol, who was arrested along with two others by the agency for demanding and accepting an alleged bribe of Rs 33 lakh from a private infrastructure company.
After coming to know of his role, the agency has carried out fresh searches at three places in Delhi and Gurgaon from where the cash was recovered, the sources claimed.

The sources said it came to light during the interrogation that it was the hawala dealer who had arranged the bribe money from the private company whose executives were nabbed while allegedly making a payment to Asol in the posh Jorbagh area here.
They said they had come to know that fake invoices were generated against which cash payments were made, which is the usual trick adopted by dealers to cover money trail of illicit cash.
"During the searches, part of transactions made through hawala network have also been cracked. The accused persons generated cash amounts, which were allegedly used for the purpose of payments as illegal gratification to public servants," said CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh.

CBI had arrested the Superintendent Engineer on October 2 for allegedly demanding and accepting an alleged bribe of Rs 33 lakh from a director (project) of a Visakhapatnam-based infrastructure company.

The director (project) of the said private company and his employee were also arrested.
It is alleged that the Engineer, CPWD, Imphal, was demanding a bribe of Rs 50 lakh from the company for clearing the bills, release of mobilisation advance and payment for the construction and work on a multi-purpose building worth Rs 210 crore (approx) in NIT, Imphal (Manipur).
The first instalment of Rs 17.5 lakh (approx) had earlier been allegedly taken by the said Superintendent Engineer of CPWD.