CBI registers case against four railway officers

CBI has registered a case against four railway officers and a contractor for allegedly making undue payments to the tune of Rs 1.02 crore against false claims while executing a contract.
The agency has registered a case of alleged cheating, forgery among others against Bhavesh Kumar the then Senior Divisional Engineer (East), K C Panigrahi, Assistant Divisional Engineer, Ashok Kumar, Senior Section Engineer (Works), S K Nirmal Kar then Junior Engineer (Works) posted in Chhattisgarh and Vijay Kumar Agrawal, Railway Contractor.
CBI spokesperson said alleged irregularities were committed in execution of work in respect of contract agreement during May, 2013 by railway contractor to whom the work had been awarded.

She said officials of South East Central Railway (SECR), Bilaspur had entered into criminal conspiracy with other accused and abused their official positions and inter-alia facilitated undue payments to the tune of Rs 1.02 crore (approximately) against false claims.
A loss to the tune of Rs.1.02 crore was caused to Government Exchequer, she said.
"It was further alleged that a contract for combined civil and other works was awarded to said contractor worth Rs 2.37 crore (approx) by SEC Railway for extension of line no. three for full rack loading; upgrading of existing line no. two and and three at Kusmunda Yard of South Eastern Coalfields Ltd and fixing of the tiles of platform of Gevra Road Station," CBI said in a statement.

It said the provision for funds was made under Deposit Estimate of an amount of Rs 6.02 crore (approx).

"The duration of completion of work was six months from the date of issue of acceptance letter. It was also alleged that the work was started in the month of March 2013 and completed in the month of March 2014. Time extension has been granted from September, 2013 to March, 2014 without penalty," CBI has alleged.
The spokesperson said the Railway Officials supervised the work and passed the bills as raised by the said contractor.
"The payments made to contractor were allegedly based on the fictitious and false claim. The contractor in furtherance to the conspiracy with the said officials of South Eastern Central Railway allegedly created false records by manipulating and recording fictitious/false measurement figures showing execution of work in the concerned relevant records without following the due procedure," she said.