CBI books eight Central Railway officers on charges of tendering fraud

The accused had allegedly entered into a conspiracy with private suppliers to purchase non-store items at higher costs, in exchange for illegal monetary benefit from private firms/companies.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against eight Central Railway officials for the purchase of non-store items at higher costs for monetary benefits.

The accused include the then senior divisional electrical engineer, then assistant divisional electrical Engineer, then senior material manager, two former senior section engineers, two former chief office superintendents, then divisional electrical engineer, all employees of Central Railways, besides many unknown people.

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It was alleged that the accused had entered into a conspiracy with the private suppliers to purchase non-store items at higher costs, in exchange for illegal monetary benefit from private firms/companies. It was further alleged that ambiguous descriptions of items were mentioned in such a manner that they could not be procured from GeM Portal and may not be understood by other suppliers, except some set of suppliers who were involved in the conspiracy.

It was also alleged that this resulted in limited tendering and, as such, the tenders were allotted to the favoured set of suppliers and allegedly procured at exorbitant rates. The purchases allegedly amounted to approximately Rs 22.60 crore.

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Searches were conducted at 12 locations on the premises of the accused, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents related to the case. The investigation is on, an official said.