A special court on Wednesday remanded two senior Railway officials to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till December 11 in a case pertaining to allegedly demanding and accepting bribes from representatives of private companies to favour award of tenders, citing the need for a proper investigation.
A third accused, director of a private company, was also sent to the CBI’s custody for the same duration.
The three accused in the case — Railway officials Atul Sharma, H D Parmar and Sameer Dave, director of Anest Iwata Motherson Pvt Ltd, were among five people arrested on December 1 by the CBI for allegedly extending benefits to Dave’s company in lieu of a huge bribe. The trio was earlier sent to jail under judicial custody by the court.
On Wednesday, special CBI Judge S M Menjoge remanded all three to the custody of the central probe agency after perusal of the case diary and progress in the investigation, which were not available on the first day of the remand post-arrest.
As per the CBI, Deputy Chief Material Manager (Coaching) (Sharma) and Senior Material Manager (Parmar) of Western Railway were apprehended while allegedly accepting a bribe in a trap laid by the central probe agency.
The investigating officer of the case, while seeking the trio’s CBI remand, submitted that during searches at their houses, incriminating documents and other articles were seized and they are required to be confronted with the same.
Sharma and Parmar were intercepted in their cabins and Rs 20,000 was recovered from the former’s office table. It was a bribe paid to him by Dave, the probe agency told the court.
Parmar was intercepted and a bribe amount of Rs 4,000 was recovered from him in presence of a ‘panch’ (witness), it said, adding the trio’s custody was necessary for further investigation.
The accused, on the other hand, contended they were innocent and falsely implicated in the offence though there was no private complainant against them.
Source of information related to the case was not disclosed by the CBI and they were arrested without being served a notice as required under sections 41 and 41A of the CrPC, the accused submitted in the court.
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The court, after hearing both sides, noted the trap was laid on the basis of credible information received by the CBI.
The judge pointed out that had the CBI waited for issuance of a notice to the accused, the trap would have failed.
“I perused the case diary and progress in the investigation. Those were not available on the first day of remand. Accused are also charged with the offence of criminal conspiracy,” the court observed.
“Considering the gravity and seriousness of the offence and involvement of higher officers of Railways, a proper investigation is required. And for a proper investigation, presence of the accused with police/CBI officers is necessary,” it noted.
It then remanded the accused to the CBI’s custody till December 11.
