The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a senior Railways official, K C Joshi, on Tuesday evening for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 3 lakh from a contractor.
The contractor had approached the CBI with a complaint that Joshi, the Principal Chief Material Officer of the North Eastern Railway, Gorakhpur, was seeking Rs 7 lakh as a bribe to not de-register his firm from the Government e-Marketplace (GEM) website and cancel his contract for the supply of three trucks.
The CBI verified the contractor’s complaint and laid a trap. On Tuesday evening, Joshi was caught red-handed accepting Rs 3 lakh from the contractor in Gorakhpur.
Subsequently, searches were conducted at Joshi’s residential premises in Gorakhpur and Noida, where the CBI recovered a total of Rs 2.61 crore in cash.
Joshi has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and is being interrogated by the CBI.
The CBI’s action against Joshi is a major blow to corruption in the Railways. It sends a strong message that the CBI will not tolerate corruption and will take strict action against those who indulge in it.
