CBI arrests 3 military engineers, aide while taking a bribe of Rs 80,000

New Delhi, Sep 12 Three officers of Military Engineer Services (MES) in Madhya Pradesh and a middleman were arrested by the CBI for accepting a bribe of Rs 80,000 from a contractor for repair and maintenance, an official said on Friday.

Those arrested were identified as Nitesh Kumar Singh, Garrison Engineer (GE), of MES, Sagar, Rakesh Sahu, Assistant Garrison Engineer (AGE) of MES, Deepak, Junior Engineer (JE) of MES and middleman Rajesh Mishra.

The CBI registered a case on Thursday on the complaint of Ajay Kumar, an employee of the firm Shree Balaji Associates, who alleged that the accused public servants demanded a bribe of Rs 1 lakh for clearing the decks for the firm to execute the Rs 26.58 lakh contract.

The FIR was registered under Sections 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, dealing with an attempt to accept undue advantage, and Section 61(2) of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita dealing with criminal conspiracy.

The bribe was demanded for making available the contract site to the contractor for carrying out the repair and maintenance work.

After negotiations, the accused agreed to accept a bribe of Rs 80,000 as rate of 1.5 per cent of the contract value from the complainant.

The CBI laid a trap and caught the four accused red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 80,000 from the complainant.

The CBI also carried out searches at the office and residential premises of the accused, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents/articles.

The arrested accused were produced before the Special CBI Judge for seeking remand for questioning.

The complainant in the case, Ajay Kumar, is a power-of attorney holder for the contract company Shree Balaji Associates, Sagar.

He said in the complaint that his firm’s owner, Narendra Kumar Gupta, was approached by Rajesh Mishra, who himself is a contractor.

He said in his complaint that his firm’s owner and he did not wish to pay the Rs 1 lakh bribe demanded by the middleman. Thereafter, Ajay Kumar filed a complaint in Jabalpur office of the CBI on September 8.

--IANS

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