The CBI has unearthed a massive trail of unaccounted wealth belonging to the arrested Executive Director and Regional Officer of the NHIDCL Guwahati.
Share
GUWAHATI — The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has unearthed a massive trail of unaccounted wealth belonging to the arrested Executive Director and Regional Officer of the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), Guwahati, following a series of raids across multiple cities, officials said on Friday.
The officer, who was caught red-handed by the CBI on October 14 while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a private contractor, is now at the centre of a widening corruption probe that has exposed staggering assets in his and his family’s names.
During the searches carried out at his office and residences in Guwahati, Ghaziabad and Imphal, CBI officials recovered Rs 2.62 crore in cash and a large number of documents related to real estate and investments.
Also read: Assam: CBI arrests NHIDCL Executive Director for taking bribe, seizes INR 2.62 crore
The seized materials include ownership documents for nine premium apartment units, one office space and three residential plots in Delhi-NCR; one luxury apartment and a residential plot in Bengaluru; four high-end apartments and two plots in Guwahati; and two homestead plots along with agricultural land in Imphal West.
Investigators also found papers showing possession of six luxury vehicles, two high-end watches worth several lakhs, and a 100-gram silver bar. The agency suspects that several of these properties were purchased at undervalued rates and are now under verification.
According to officials, the bribery case was registered following source-based intelligence indicating that the senior NHIDCL official was demanding illegal gratification from contractors in exchange for favourable treatment in project clearances.
The CBI subsequently laid a trap and caught him red-handed while taking the bribe for granting an extension of time and completion certificate related to a four-laning project on National Highway 37 between Demow and the end of Moran Bypass in Assam, among other contracts.
The accused official and a private company representative, who was also arrested during the operation, were produced before the Special CBI Court in Assam and have been remanded to three days of police custody.
The CBI has stated that the investigation into the disproportionate assets and related transactions is ongoing.