The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday arrested two senior Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officials along with a businessman for their alleged involvement in the supply of substandard packaged water in premium trains.
“The investigating team has arrested Sandeep Silas, a 1984-batch IRTS official, and M.S. Chalia of the 1987 batch, who were earlier posted as Chief Commercial Manager (Catering). Sharan Bihari Agrawal, owner of R.K. Associates and Hoteliers, from whose premises Rs.28 crore in cash was seized, has also been arrested,” a CBI official said.
The railway officials have been accused of not taking action against the companies despite repeated complaints from the IRCTC, which supplied the mandatory “Rail Neer” brand bottled waters to the firms for distribution among passengers in premium trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi.
The arrested persons were produced before a duty magistrate who granted their one-day custody to the CBI. The agency is expected to seek extension of their custody from a regular court on Monday.
Mr. Agrawal’s sons Abhishek and Rahul, who ran one of the accused companies, Brandavan Food Product and Food World, are also under CBI scrutiny. The agency has registered a case against seven private firms and the Railway officials for allegedly supplying cheap packaged water. As per set procedure, the IRCTC supplied bottled water to private firms at Rs.10.50 per bottle and the companies were paid Rs.15 a bottle for distribution.
However, to make more profit, the accused companies procured packaged water for Rs. 5.70 to Rs. 7 per bottle from the open market.
