CBI unearths Railway recruitment scam, arrests eight persons

NEW DELHI /MUMBAI - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday unearthed a railway recruitment scam and arrested eight persons including the son of S.M. Sharma, the Chairman of the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), Mumbai, for allegedly running the racket.

The CBI teams conducted simultaneous raids at various places in Mumbai, Bangalore, Raipur, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

According to CBI spokesperson Harsh Bhal, this scam was related to the examinations of Assistant Loco Pilot and Assistant Station Master held on une 6 and 13.

Bhal said the CBI estimated that the scam runs into several crores of rupees.

The CBI has so far arrested eight persons-Vivek Bhardwaj Sharma son of S.M. Sharma, Chairman, Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) Mumbai, A.K. Jagannatham, the then Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM), his son Srujan, a Raipur-based agent MRSN Murthy, an employee Andhra Pradesh Health Department, A. Kumar Swamy and three Hyderabad-based agents–. Ashok Kumar, J. Ramesh, J. Triupataiah.

The CBI has produced-Sharma, Jagannatham, Srujan and Murthy before the designated court in Hyderabad. The Court remanded them to fourteen days’ judicial custody.

The remaining four-arrested accused are being produced before the designated court at Hyderabad by Friday evening.

At Mumbai, searches have led to the detection of Rs.60 lakhs in banks accounts of the family members of Sharma besides bank pass books and laptops, the CBI said.

The CBI claimed that, recently, Sharma had purchased a Pajero from the ill-gotten money in one of his relatives name.

The CBI said that in Rs.21.5 lakhs in cash and original certificates of 444 aspirants were recovered from Jagannatham’s Hyderabad residence.

Rs.12 lakhs were recovered from the possession of Jagannatham at a Hotel in Bangalore, where he was staying along with incriminating documents, such as question papers and original certificates of the aspirants.

The CBI said several incriminating documents have been recovered from the searches at Kolkata, Hyderabad and Raipur.

Bhal said searches at other places in the country are in progress.

The CBI alleged that Jagannatham in connivance with the officials of RRB, Mumbai could secure a copy of the question paper before the examination date and provided the same to several aspirants mobilized by him with the help of his agents.

Searches revealed that aspirants of the examinations so mobilized were asked to pay huge amounts of money and deposit their original certificates with Jagannatham and only after that the question paper was provided to them one day prior to the examination.

The CBI said the agreement is to pay the remaining portion of money and take away the certificates after the declaration of the results.

The CBI said the accused demanded several candidates to pay to the tune of Rs.3,50,000/- for getting selected. (ANI)