CBI starts probe, FIR against 4 NF railway officials & contractor

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case and started a probe into the alleged scam to the tune of Rs 90 crores in projects being executed by the NF Railway on the Silchar-Sairang (Mizoram) line.
CBI starts probe, FIR against 4 NF railway officials & contractor

SCAM OF RS 90 CRORES IN NFR

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case and started a probe into the alleged scam to the tune of Rs 90 crores in projects being executed by the NF Railway on the Silchar-Sairang (Mizoram) line.

The CBI has registered an FIR (no RC 0202020A 0006) on October 21,2020 in this connection at its Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) in Shillong under relevant sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988. The case was registered after taking approval from the Railway Board under Section 17A of the PC Act.

The FIR filed by the SP of ACB Shillong, VivekDutta has mentioned that the suspected offences are criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating and criminal misconduct. The scam took place between 2013 and 2018 with alleged involvement of contractors and a section of NF Railway officers.

According to the FIR, the NFR allegedly made excess payments to the tune of crores of rupees to a contractor in respect of five major works, including construction of two single tunnels, embankments and bridges between Bhairabi and Sairang. The Bairabi-Sairang line connects Mizoram to Indian Railways' network up to the Bairabi railway station. This railway line has been declared as a national project.

Referring to an example as how the scam took place by tampering and inflating bills against various works, the CBI's FIR has stated that the contractor firm — M/s Nayak Infrastructure Private Limited submitted price escalation bill of various miscellaneous works of Rs 1.80 crore by manipulating and adding the figure 1 at the left end of the figures making of Rs 11.80 crore. A total of eight such fraudulent bills were made by the contractor. The bill of Rs 2.92 crore manipulated and inflated into Rs 12.92 crore, Rs 1.56 crore to Rs 11.56 crore, Rs 3.69 crore to Rs 13.69 crore and Rs 2.07 crore to Rs 12.07 crore.

In the FIR, the CBI has named four NFR officials, including a then Deputy Chief Engineer, an Assistant Executive Engineer, and an Assistant Finance Advisor, among others. The accused officials are SP Deshmukh, Pradip Kumar Sharma, TapeswarRabha and BimalDey.

The CBI has also filed cases against AnantaCharanNayak and BiswajitNayak of M/s Nayak Infrastructure Private Limited. The FIR has mentioned an unknown person as one of the accused in the scam.

The Railway officials allegedly did not properly check the "inflated" bills submitted by the contractor's firm, M/s Nayak Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, and recommended payment thereby allegedly causing loss of several crores of rupees to the Railways and this led to the corresponding wrongful gain to themselves.

The contractor had submitted the bills under the Price Variation Clause (PVC) that deals with price escalation. The contractor allegedly got the bills passed in collision with a few engineers and officers of the NF Railway.

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