Assam: CSIR-NEIST Principal Scientist, Controller of Stores & Purchase, 2 others arrested by CBI in bribery case

Guwahati: The CBI has arrested a Controller of Stores & Purchase (COSP) and a Principal Scientist at Assam’s Jorhat-based Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-North East Institute of Science and Technology (CSIR-NEIST), and two other individuals - a Director of a private company, and his brother who allegedly handed over bribe to the accused public servants, in a Rs eight lakh bribery case. 

Based on an First Information Report (FIR), the Central investigating agency on Friday (July 26) had registered a case against five public servants, including a COSP, a Principal Scientist-Centre for Infectious Disease (CID), a Senior Principal Scientist-CID, a Finance and Accounts Officer (F&AO) – all of Jorhat’s CSIR-NEIST, and the then Controller of Finance and Accounts (CoFA) of Jorhat’s CSIR-NEIST, currently working as CoFA at the New Delhi-based CSIR-National Institute of Science, Communication and Policy Research (NIScPR), the CBI said in a press statement on Saturday (July 27).

The premier investigating agency had also registered the case against two other individuals, including the Director of the private company M/s KXK Technologies Private Limited having its registered office in New Delhi, his brother who is a resident of Assam’s Jorhat, and unknown others, under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), it said.

It was alleged in the FIR that the public servants were involved in corrupt and illegal activities of obtaining “undue advantage” from different private parties and companies in lieu of extending “undue favour” in connection with purchase and award of contracts, it added.  

It was also alleged that the then CoFA had contacted the CSIR headquarters in the national capital and pursued for allocation of a fund of approximately Rs seven crore for incurring expenditure by Jorhat’s CSIR-NEIST towards purchase of equipment to be supplied by  M/s KXK Technologies Private Limited, it said.

Thereafter, the COSP (bribe receiver) and the F&AO allegedly discussed their share of bribe as a sum of Rs seven lakh and Rs two lakh.

It was also alleged that the Senior Principal Scientist had allegedly indicated payment of his bribe share by the accused Director with assurance in all such future work orders of Jorhat’s CSIR-NEIST, it added.

It was further alleged that the accused Director had informed his brother that he would transfer a sum of Rs nine lakh in the bank account of a consultancy firm and latter should withdraw a sum of Rs eight lakh, out of which, a bribe amount of Rs seven lakh to be handed over to the COSP and keep the remaining sum of Rs one lakh with him, it said.

The CBI soon laid a trap and caught the COSP and the Principal Scientist-CID at Jorhat on Friday while having obtained the “undue advantage” of Rs seven lakh and Rs one lakh, respectively, from the brother of the accused Director for extending favour to his company in awarding contract and passing of bill for supply of spectrophotometer and its related software, it added.

The CBI soon arrested the public servants and the brother of the accused Director and subsequently recovered the bribe amounts from both the accused. On the other hand, the accused Director was arrested on Saturday from Guwahati, it said.

Later, searches were conducted at 18 different places, including the office, residential premises and business premises of the accused located in Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, from where incriminating documents and articles were recovered, it added.

Those arrested are the COSP Praveer Mohan Verma, the Principal Scientist-CID Prasenjit Manna, the accused Director Kangkan Kashyap, and his brother Angkan Borpujari.

The other accused are the F&AO Abhay Sakhare, the CoFA Rama Shankar Sharma, and the Senior Principal Scientist-CID Jatin Kalita, among others, it said.  

All the four arrested accused were produced before the competent court in Guwahati on Saturday. Further investigation into the matter is on, it further said.