CBI nabs railway engineer red-handed in Vijayawada over Rs 15 lakh bribe
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a senior railway official and a private individual on Sunday after catching the engineer accepting a Rs 15 lakh bribe.
The accused, a Senior Section Engineer with the Chief Signal and Telecommunications Engineer (CSTE) Projects office at South Central Railway in Vijayawada, was caught taking cash from a private person.
The money was reportedly a reward for helping approve and release a large bonus claim to a joint venture company connected to the private individual’s father.
The CBI said it registered the case earlier on Sunday against the Senior Section Engineer, four private company representatives, and some unidentified public servants and private individuals. The agency received information that officials in the CSTE Projects wing had changed dates in official records related to a bonus claim. The joint venture of two private companies had received a contract worth Rs 179.50 crore from South Central Railway for Automatic Block Signalling work.
The firm later claimed a bonus of about Rs 7 crore for finishing the project early.
Investigators found that railway officials may have helped by changing the dates on the file to approve the claim. The CBI learned that the Managing Director (MD) of one of the private companies told the Senior Section Engineer that his son would deliver the bribe while travelling from Visakhapatnam to Vijayawada on August 16. Acting on this tip, CBI teams set up a trap.
The engineer was caught accepting Rs 15 lakh in cash, and the full amount was recovered on the spot. Both the Senior Section Engineer and the private person were taken into custody that day.
Immediately after the arrests, CBI teams searched the homes and offices of the accused and related people in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Pithapuram, and Hyderabad. They are looking for more documents, digital evidence, and any other proceeds from the alleged corruption.
CBI officials said the investigation is ongoing and more arrests may happen as they look into the larger conspiracy. of alleged corruption in railway project clearances. Officials pointed out that large infrastructure contracts, particularly those involving time-bound bonuses, remain vulnerable to record manipulation and demands for illegal gratification.
The recovery of the exact amount and the documented communication between the private company and the railway official are expected to be key evidence in the prosecution’s case. Investigators are also checking if other officials in the CSTE Projects office were involved in changing the bonus file.
For South Central Railway, this incident raises important questions about how high-value claims are checked internally. The project itself is a critical safety and capacity-enhancement work on the busy network.
Any delay or irregularity in its financial closure can have wider operational implications.
As the accused face court proceedings on Monday, the CBI has made it clear that the net is still being cast wider. Searches across four cities suggest the agency is looking for money trails, additional beneficiaries and possible systemic collusion.
