The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested two engineers of the Military Engineer Services (MES), from the Danapur Cantonment in Patna, for accepting a bribe of Rs 1.42 lakh. The arrests were made after the agency laid a trap, based on the complaint of a long-serving contractor. The CBI said the investigation prima facie suggested the two engineers had been “pressuring contractors to give 10 per cent commission of a project even with the contractors qualifying as minimum (L1) bidders in tender process”. The team had conducted raids late on Monday evening at the offices and residences of garrison engineer Man Singh and junior engineer R R Singh, both residents of Gorakhpur. The garrison engineer was posted to the Danapur cantonment on January 2013 and the junior engineer on April 2013. CBI’s Patna DIG B K Singh confirmed the arrests and told The Indian Express that after their team conducted raids at the offices and the residences of both engineers, they recovered Rs 2.13 lakh from the junior engineer. The complaint against the two engineers was filed by contractor Vijay Bakshi. “The contractor alleged the two engineers had been asking for 10 per cent commission for clearing tenders for construction work at the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Danapur and also prevented the contractor from completing work at a Muzaffarpur project, earlier allotted to Bakshi” the DIG said.
