NHAI GM among 4 arrested by CBI for ₹15 lakh bribe to clear inflated bills in Bihar

PATNA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a general manager of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and three others, including a general manager of a private company, in connection with alleged bribery of ₹15 lakh, officials said on Monday

The four were identified by CBI as NHAI general manager Ram Prit Paswan, Ram Kripal Singh Construction Pvt. Ltd (RKSCPL) general manager Suresh Mahapatra, and his two employees, Barun Kumar and Chetan Kumar.

People familiar with the matter said apart from the bribe amount of ₹15 lakh, investigators also seized ₹1.18 crore cash at premises linked to the accused.

CBI registered a case against 12 persons including 6 NHAI officials on March 22. According to the FIR, it was alleged that the NHAI officials were getting bribes from private contractor RKSCPL in exchange for clearing inflated bills, manipulation of measurement books and turning a blind eye to the use of inferior construction material by the company.

RKSCPL had been given the contract for construction of a highway stretch of greenfield alignment of Tal Dashara to Bela Nawda Section of NH-119D which comes under Project Implementation Unit (PIU), NHAI, Muzaffarpur.

According to the FIR, the suspects named in the case were identified as YB Singh, chief general manager (CGM) and regional officer (RO) of the Patna NHAI, GM Ram Prit Paswan, deputy GM Kumar Saurabh, PIU, Purnea, project director Lalit Kumar, PIU (Darbhanga/Muzaffarpur), site engineer Anshul Thakur, PIU (Darbhanga/Muzaffarpur), AGM (accounts) Hemen Medhi, Barun Kumar, employee of RKSCPL, RKSCPL GM Suresh Mahapatra, GM Amar Nath Jha, employee Chetan Kumar, contractor Satya Narayan Singh alias Pappu Singh ( Muzaffarpur).

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 at Patna for delivery of the bribe amount on March 22.

CBI laid a trap and caught the accused after ₹15 lakh allegedly exchanged hands. The accused public servant who accepted the bribe and the private company officials who delivered the bribe have been arrested.

Searches were conducted by CBI at the residential and official premises of the accused at Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Begusarai, Purnia, Ranchi and Varanasi which led to recovery of ₹1.18 crore, several incriminating documents and digital devices.