Hyderabad: DRM among Sr Railway Officers Caught by CBI

 Hyderabad, Anantapur: The CBI on Saturday arrested a divisional railway manager (DRM) and several senior officials of Guntakal division and some private sector employees in a case involving about Rs 11 lakh in bribes, following searches at Guntakal, Anantapur, Nellore, Tirupati, Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Bengaluru.

The CBI laid a trap when an amount of Rs 10.5 lakh was delivered to various officials. Jewellery taken as bribe was recovered during the search in the residence of DRM Vineet Singh of the South Central Railways’ Guntakal division.

Apart from Vineet Singh, four others arrested from the SCR’s Guntakal division were Kunda Pradeep Babu, senior divisional finance manager (who received a Rs10 lakh bribe), U. Akki Reddy, senior divisional engineer (Sr. DEN, now posted to Secunderabad); M. Balaji, office superintendent; D. Laksmi Pathi Raju, accounts assistant;

The CBI also arrested Kuppam Rameshkumar Reddy, director of CNR Projects India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru, and a private person, N. Rahamatulla of Hyderabad.

The agency registered cases against M. Bhima Shankar of M.V.V. Satyanarayana, Bengaluru; Challa Suresh Naidu of Suresh Constructions, Guntakal; Rama Subba Reddy of Shakti Engineering, Miyapur, Hyderabad; B. Siva Reddy of S.R. Constructions, Anantapur; B. Srinivasulu of Nellore, CNR Projects India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru; B.L.V. Prasad, account assistant, SCR’s Guntakal division.

It was alleged that the accused contractors were obtaining undue benefits in award of tenders, execution of the awarded works and expeditious processing of the bills by paying huge bribes to the railway officials.

It was further alleged that accused DRM demanded illegal gratification at the rate of 0.5 per cent of the total tender amount, in the form of gold jewellery. It was also alleged that `20 lakh was demanded by then Sr DEN, co-ordination. The accused private person planned to pay `10 lakh each to the accused senior DFM and ADRM of Guntakal division after the general elections, the CBI said.