CBI books Railtel Director in corruption case

New Delhi: The CBI on Wednesday booked the Director (Project Operation and Maintenance) of Railtel Corporation of India, Ashutosh Vasant in a corruption case, alleging that he might have struck a quid-pro-quo deal with a consortium of an Indian and US-based firm, which was competing for a tender to build a Dense Wave Division Multiplexing Technology (DWDM). According to the agency, Vasant also recommended this consortium for the tender.

Officials here said that while Vasant was on the Tender Committee of Railtel, he had gone to the United States to conduct a Factory Assessment Test (FAT) of the competing firm Infinera USA. However, while he was eligible for Business Class tickets for his trip, the CBI has alleged that Vasant forged the tickets for his trip and got the amount reimbursed from Railtel and used it to pay for Economy tickets for him and his family. The CBI has said that this cost Railtel around Rs 1.35 lakh

Moreover, the CBI has alleged that while in Santa Clara, USA, a representative of Infinera India Pvt Limited had paid for Vasant's stay at the Hilton Hotel there with his credit card. The CBI's FIR said that Vasant had agreed to pay this representative back in cash.

The tender for the DWDM Technology project was floated and one of the competing firms was a consortium of India's UTL and US-based Infinera Pvt Ltd. The CBI has alleged that Vasant showed them undue favours in 2012 when he was General Manager (P/CO) of Railtel and was also the Convener of the Tender Committee.