ACB arrests official for accepting bribe from Contractor

Chennai, Nov 13 (UNI) The officials of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of CBI, Chennai, today arrested P V Reddy, Senior Divisional Engineer (Coordination), Southern Railway, Trichirapalli, for accepting a bribe of Rs one lakh from a Civil Engineering Contractor.

Pandidhurai, a residient of Trichirapalli, is a Civil Engineering Contractor for Southern Railway, Trichy and Madurai Divisions, besides other Central Government organisations in that area.

He was awarded a contract for raising platforms, improvement of flooring and circulation area of Srirangam Railway Station.

During the process of execution of this contract, he was also asked to complete certain additional work of construction of water tank, demolition of existing platform and other work, related to the main contract awarded to him. As a Senior Divisional Engineer (Coordination), Reddy was a competent officer to process the sanction at senior level.

On several occassions, the file sent for the approval of Reddy was returned without according sanction and also without assigning any reason, despite requests from the Contractor. Since the excess work assigned was pertaining to passenger amenities and as other senior officials persuaded, the Contractor completed the work in the absence of written approval from Mr Reddy.

After considerable delay, Reddy approved the proposal relating to excess work not mentioned in the contract, informed the same to the contractor and demanded a bribe of Rs one lakh for having sanctioning the rider agreement. The Contractor, informed Mr Reddy that he could not offer any bribe, as his money was blocked unreasonably, due to delay in according approval.

Reddy, however, persisted with his demand for bribe. On November 11, Mr Pandidhurai contacted Reddy and expressed his inability to give the bribed. Enraged over his reply, Reddy gave an ultimatum to him that Rs one lakh bribe amount should be paid to him latest by November 12 and threatened him with direconsequences, if the bribe amount was not paid.

Mr Pandidhurai, who was disinclined to pay the bribe amount demanded by Reddy, contacted the CBI office in Chennai. The ACB officials in Chennai swung into action, and on receipt of a written complaint from Mr Pandidhurai, laid a trap on Reddy at Trichirapalli and caught him red-handed while he was accepting the said amount from Mr Pandidhurai.

Searches were also conducted at the residential premises of Reddy and incriminating documents were seized.

Reddy was arrested and produced before the Special Judge for CBI cases, Madurai and remanded to judicial custody till November 26.

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