CBI arrests chief engineer of Puducherry govt’s PWD dept, two others for bribery; ₹73 lakh cash recovered

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested three accused, including two engineers working in the Public Works Department (PWD) department of Puducherry government, for bribery.

The Chief Engineer and Executive Engineer of PWD department and a private contractor with PWD are among those arrested.

They were held immediately after exchanging the partial bribe amount of ₹2 lakh. An amount of ₹73 lakh cash was recovered during searches, reported ANI.

Over the last few days, several officials from various departments have been arrested by the central agency in graft cases.

On March 22, the probe agency arrested a forest guard for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹35,000 in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Vipin Pathania, posted at the Billawar zonal office of the Jammu and Kashmir forest department, was trapped following a complaint that he sought a bribe for the smooth execution of a road construction contract and the release of an earth-mover key he had allegedly taken away.

on March 20, CBI has arrested Uday Kumar, senior GM of Power Grid Corporation of India, for allegedly taking a bribe of ₹2.5 lakh from an executive of Mumbai-based KEC International to extend favours to the company.

Kumar, posted in Rajasthan's Ajmer, was arrested on Thursday along with Suman Singh of KEC International in Sikar where both had agreed to meet for alleged exchange of the bribe amount, they said.

On March 19, two people, including the Conservation Assistant of Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and a contractual employee in Nashik, were arrested in a graft case.

The arrested accused were been identified as Deepak Chaudhari, a Conservation Assistant at the Archeological Survey of India, and Prakash Kaklij, a contractual employee working at MTS, ASI Pandavleni Office at Nashik.

Earlier this month, CBI arrested five railway officers, including two of the Indian Railway Personnel Service posted at the Vadodara Division, for alleged bribery in favouring candidates in departmental examination.

The federal probe agency also seized 650 grams of gold and ₹5 lakh cash during its searches at 11 locations, including in Gujarat's Vadodara, a CBI spokesperson said.

Among those arrested, include a 2008-batch IRPS officer Sunil Bishnoi who was posted as a senior divisional personnel officer in Vadodara, 2018-batch IRPS officer Ankush Wasan, posted as divisional personnel officer there, Deputy Chief Commercial Manager Sanjay Kumar Tiwari posted at Mumbai's Churchgate, Deputy Station Superintendent Neeraj Sinha and Nursing Superintendent Dinesh Kumar posted at Divisional Railway Hospital in Ahmedabad, officials said.