Bhubaneswar, Aug 5: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested Chief Mechanical Engineer, Paradip Port Trust, Odisha and three private persons including conduit, middleman in a bribery case and recovered Rs 84.5 lakh.
CBI sources here on Friday said a case was registered against Chief Mechanical Engineer, Paradip Port Trust (Odisha), and others including private persons, a private company & unknown others.
It was alleged that the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME), Paradip Port Trust (Odisha) was in the habit of demanding & accepting bribes through his close conduit for extending undue benefits to various private stakeholders engaged in port service and activities at Paradip Port.
The said conduit of CME was in close contact with Manager Port Operations (also allegedly acting as a middleman with other Cargo companies) of a private group of companies & other persons.
It was further alleged that while unloading cargo, a private company based at Cuttack (Odisha), damaged the conveyor belt operational in Paradip Port.
The cost of repairing/replacing the conveyor belt was very high. The said CME in conspiracy with conduit, middleman & Director of the said private company got it repaired at the cost of Port Trust causing a huge monetary advantage to said private company.
In turn, the conduit allegedly demanded Rs. 60 lakh as a bribe for the said favour, allegedly on behalf of CME.
Accordingly, he collected the bribe amount of Rs 25 lakh from Cuttack and kept Rs 10 lakh separately for himself. It was also alleged that the conduit handed over Rs 10 lakh to a real estate developer in Bhubaneshwar, with whom the Chief Mechanical Engineer had allegedly booked a property.
The CBI intercepted the conduit in Paradip and recovered Rs 5 lakh of the alleged bribe money from him. Later, Rs 18.30 lakh also as part of the alleged bribe was recovered.
During further searches, Rs 20.25 lakh (approx.), jewellery, documents related to investment and other incriminating documents were recovered from the residence of the Chief Mechanical Engineer.
Searches were also conducted at 15 locations including in Paradip, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur & Bhubaneswar at the premises of the accused.
CBI source said Rs 41 lakh (approx.) was recovered from the premises of the Director of said private company. The arrested accused will be produced on Friday before the Competent Court.
A day after the CBI raids at multiple places in Cuttack and Paradip on Thursday in connection with a bribery case, noted industrialist and Managing Director of Odisha Stevedores Limited (OSL) Mahima Mishra appeared before the CBI office here on Friday for interrogation.
The CBI had raided Mishra’s residence at Cuttack and offices both at Bhubaneswar and Paradip on Thursday.
Sources said the CBI team during the raid questioned the Paradip Port Trust Chief Mechanical Engineer Saroj Kumar Das and one Sumant Rout, a private contractor in connection with a bribery case.
Mahima Mishra’s son Chandan Mishra was also picked up by the CBI on Thursday and taken to the CBI office for interrogation in connection with the bribery case.
With UNI Inputs….
