Senior official among 4 held for trying to auction railway property

A senior Railways engineer and a store in-charge of North-Central Railway were among four persons arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) here on Friday evening for allegedly trying to illegally auction railway material to private parties.

According to an RPF official,a team under the supervision of assistant commandant G P Mishra and inspector in-charge Anand Kumar,intercepted a truck on Friday afternoon and seized the railway material including iron angles,sleepers and other items used in railway bridges and tracks being transported illegally. The RPF team arrested three persons — truck driver Taufiq,helper Rameshwar Mishra and store in-charge Ashok Kumar Singh — at the spot. Based on information from them,the railway team also arrested Surendra Kumar Nath,senior section in-charge of the Railway bridge department.

Preliminary investigations revealed the material seized from the truck was being taken for illegal auction to a couple of private parties near railway godown on Zero Road. The official said the entire racket was being run on Nath’s instructions.