CBI chargesheets Railways Chief Engineer for Rs 91 lakh scam

Kochi, Dec 18 (UNI) The CBI today filed a chargesheet against S C L Meena, Chief Engineer, Railways, and contractor Jose Thomas, for allegedly causing a loss of over Rs 91 lakh to the Indian Railways through 'wrongful manipulation of the tendering process.' The chargesheet was filed in the court of Special Judge-1, CBI, Ernakulam.

According to the chargesheet, Mr Meena, the then Chief Engineer (Construction), Southern Railway, Thiruvananthapuram, had conspired with Mr Thomas to get a higher tender passed for earth work between Bridge No.22010 and Ezhukone staton in 2004.

While the tender committee recommended the acceptance of the quotation of one T M Kuruvilla of Rs 2,00,56,928 for the works, Mr Meena asked for an extension of the validity period of the tender, citing land acquisition problems.

When Mr Kuruvilla withdrew from the tender, the project was re-tendered and Mr Jose Thomas quoted Rs 3,79,46,748 for the same work.

While the tender committee recommended the discharge of this tender, Mr Meena, to show undue favour to Mr Thomas, asked the committee to negotiate with Mr Thomas and after negotiation the work was awarded to him for Rs. 2,96,82,875.

After the transfer of Mr Meena, as the execution of the work was very slow and found not satisfactory, the contract was terminated and later awarded to another contractor, the CBI said.

UNI