New Delhi, March 24 A General Manager of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and three others were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a bribe of Rs 15 lakh case, an official said on Monday.
He added that illegal assets of Rs 1.18 crore have also been seized.
Those arrested include a General Manager of a private company and the action was taken after immediately exchanging a bribe of Rs15 lakh taken by the NHAI official in Patna as illegal gratification for extending undue favours in processing and passing of the bills related to the contracts/works, he said.
The official said after the arrest, searches were conducted at the premises of the NHAI official and other accused and Rs 1.18 crore were recovered.
The searches were spread across the residential and official premises of the accused at Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Begusarai, Purnia, Ranchi and Varanasi which led to the recovery of Rs 1.18 crore, incriminating documents and digital devices.
A case was registered by the CBI on March 22, 2025, against 12 accused, including six public servants of the rank of Chief General Manager/General Manager (GM)/other senior ranks of NHAI, one private company, four senior representatives of the private company, including its two GMs besides one other private contractor and unknown other public servants and private persons.
It was alleged that the accused public servants of the NHAI, while acting in connivance with accused representatives of the private company, were facilitating and extending undue favour/advantage in processing and passing of the bills related to the contracts/works of the Authority awarded to the accused private company in lieu of illegal gratification.
It was also alleged that after arranging the bribe money, an accused representative of the private company decided to meet the accused public servant at a fixed place in Patna (near his residence) for delivery of the bribe amount on March 22.
On receiving the tip-off, the CBI laid a trap and caught the accused representative of the private company and the accused General Manager (bribe receiver) of National Highways and accused GM (bribe giver) of the private company red-handed after delivering the bribe of Rs.15 lakh.
The accused public servant, who accepted the bribe, was arrested soon after the delivery of the money, said a CBI official.
--IANS
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