A fast track court on Monday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to interrogate three accused for five days, in a case related to supply of inferior quality of Rail Neer, a packaged drinking water supplied in Rajdhani and other premium trains.
The CBI during the court proceedings told the court that searches were conducted in a case related to supply of inferior-quality of Rail Neer water in premium trains. During the raid out of Rs28 cr around Rsfour lakh fake currency notes were recovered from the possession of Sharan Bihari Agarwal, owner of RK Associates Pvt ltd, which was managing supply of packaged drinking water, the CBI said.
The probe agency further added that accused has not given reasonable explanation for the possession of huge cash and therefore to establish the chain of cash flow, custodial interrogation is required.
After hearing the arguments, special CBI judge Vinod Kumar permitted the probe agency to interrogate two Indian Railways officers Sandeep Silas and MS Chalia and Sharan Bihari Agarwal. The three men were arrested by CBI on Saturday.
On Sunday all the three accused were remanded to one-day police custody. They were presented before the court on Monday after expiry of their one-day police custody.
As per a CBI release, Sandeep Silas is a 1984-batch Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer. MS Chalia, the second officer, was also monitored by the CBI for the alleged involvement of his son’s company in the scam.
The CBI suspects that the private catering companies could have paid illegal remittances to the officer through the company run by his son for favours shown to them for supplying inferior quality of packaged drinking water on premium trains.
On Friday, CBI registered a case against Chalia, Silas and seven private companies — RK Associates Pvt ltd, Satyam Caterers Pvt ltd, Ambuj Hotel and Real Estate, PK Associates Pvt ltd, Sunsine Pvt ltd, Brandavan Food Product and Food World — under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to CBI’s submission, Silas and Chalia are required to be interrogated with respect to their investment in various company and properties which is either in their names or in the names of their family members.
The agency also submitted that they are investigating the role of railway officials in favouring Agarwal. It has claimed that the accused are influential people and can tamper with evidence and documents related to the case. It also said that accused were not cooperating in the probe and they were required to be interrogated regarding some bank lockers in and outside Delhi and also in Agra.
While defending his client, counsel of one of the accused said that the packaged drinking water of the other companies was supplied due to insufficient quantity of Rail-Neer brand.