INDIA. Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked 12 Central Railway officers on Thursday on charges of taking bribes on a regular basis from the private loaders and lease holders for extending favours, including granting extra time for loading the parcels.
The FIR No (FIR No RC0262023AO035 dated November 07) has named: Pranay Mukund, Chief Yard Master; Girdhari LaI Saini, Deputy Station Manager (Yard); Pradeep Gautam, Deputy Station Manager (Yard); Mithai Lal Yadav, Shunting Master; Rakesh Karande, Shunting Master; Jayant Maurya, Deputy Station Manager (Yard); Mithlesh Kumar, Pointsman from the Chief Yard Master’s office; Lokmanya Tilak terminus (LTT); Mumbai; Raunit Raj, Pointsman from the Chief Yard Master’s office; Ramdeep Giri (vendor); Suryabhan B. Dipankar (vendor); other unknown public servants and private persons. The accused have been booked under Section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 7, 8, and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (amended in 2018).
The LTT station in Mumbai is a terminating and originating train station under the Central Railways. In the first case, it was alleged that officials of the Parcel Department were taking bribes on a regular basis from the private loaders/lease holders in cash or through UPI for extending favours to them.
In the second case, it was alleged that the officers posted at the Yard Department were taking bribes from private agents in the form of cash and also through UPI payments into the accounts of pointsmen posted in the yard. It was further alleged that the bribes were given for facilitating the placement of Valuable Parcel Van (VPU) at the terminus. It was also alleged that the accused received bribes from the agents and were delivering part of the bribe to their superiors.
The lease holders are given fixed three hours for loading and unloading of parcels. After three hours, if the loading or unloading is not completed, demurrage or wharfage charges are levied on them. However, officials of the Chief Yard Master’s office were allowing extra time to the private vendors for loading and unloading of the parcels, thereby causing wrongful gain to the private vendors in lieu of gratification.
Searches were conducted at around eight locations in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, and Nashik, including at the residential premises of the accused, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents, mobile phones, etc. The case is being investigated by Police Inspector Gajanan Deshmukh, Anti-Corruption Bureau, CBI, Mumbai.
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