CBI arrests engineer of Military Engineer Services for taking bribe

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a junior garrison engineer of Military Engineer Services (MES) posted at Binnaguri in Jalpaiguri on charges of taking bribe.

The accused Naib Subedar Suresh Kumar Rana was arrested red-handed while taking a bribe of ₹ 60,000.

A complaint was lodged with CBI alleging that the junior engineer had demanded a bribe of ₹ 1,14,000 to clear some pending bills.

The complainant had engaged into a settlement of paying the money in two installments. As per their discussion, the complainant had assured of giving ₹ 60,000 on Wednesday.

CBI also received the information and acting on a tip-off, the officers of the Central investigating agency conducted a raid. Rana was arrested while he was taking the money. The money has also been seized.

A search was conducted in the office premises of Suresh after his arrest. Sources said documents relevant to the bribery case have been seized from his office. According to a CBI officer, they will be going through the documents seized from his office and will go through them properly. Rana was posted at Binnaguri for the past few years and the documents would help them to get more evidence on the allegations raised against him.

The accused was produced before the Special Judge of CBI cases in Siliguri on Thursday. The CBI officers have already taken statement of the complainant and noted the reason behind the accused's demand for the bribe. Based on the allegations of the complainant, a probe had been initiated. The complainant is a civilian contractor. Now, the CBI will be questioning the accused to know whether he had demanded a bribe from any other civilian contractor earlier.

Earlier, CBI had made similar arrests from Agra, Pune and Jaipur.

From Agra in April 2017, CBI had arrested an assistant garrison engineer of the MES from Western Command in Chandimandir. He too was arrested red-handed while taking a bribe of ₹ 25,000.