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Showing posts with label Railways Scam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Railways Scam. Show all posts

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

19:54

Rail Neer contractor made Rs.500 Crore worth business empire in 10 years


Rail Neer contractor made Rs.500 Crore worth business empire in 10 years

New Delhi: A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation exposed a major scam in the supply of packaged drinking water within the Railways, it has now emerged that the ‘Rail Neer’ contractor had  made a business empire worth Rs 500 crore in just over a decade.

As per a report, Shyam Bihari Agrawal, booked by CBI following its raid in connection with the ‘Rail Neer’ scandal, virtually controlled the railway catering services. Agarwal is the owner of the chain of Comesum restaurants at railway stations across India. He reportedly holds about 70% of pantry car business in Indian Railways through his parent company RK Associates & Hoteliers and several other front companies.

Agrawal, who hails from Chhattisgarh, gets almost all the contracts in the premium trains, including Rajdhani and Shatabdi express besides other important trains, the report said qouting the CBI sources.

Agrawal made the fortune after getting small catering contracts in railways with the help of some senior politicians and bureaucrats. He is said to be close to two former railway ministers and managed to get big contracts for catering.

Four of Agarwal’s several companies have been named by CBI in its FIR.

“Whenever there is a tender in railways for catering, he opens a new company with different set of Directors. Through his contacts, he gets the contract,” said an official was quoted as saying.

The agency had on Friday raided 13 places in Delhi and Noida, and registered a case against two senior officials of Northern Railway and seven private companies in connection with the alleged scam. The case has been lodged against former chief commercial managers (PS and Catering) of Northern Railway MS Chalia and Sandeep Silas.

The companies booked by CBI are RK Associates Pvt Ltd, Satyam Caterers Pvt Ltd, Ambuj Hotel and Real Estate, PK Associates Pvt Ltd, Sunsine Pvt Ltd, Brandavan Food Product and Food World under Prevention of Corruption Act.

CBI also recovered Rs 27 crore from the residence of Shyam Bihari Agrawal, his sons Abhishek Agrawal and Rahul Agarwal, who own RK Associates and Brandavan Food Product World.

As per CBI, the railway officials had favored these private firms by allowing other packaged drinking water other than the mandatory Rail Neer in premium trains, including Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express, and were making big gains.
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19:49

CBI busts Rail Neer Scam in Railways; seizes Rs.27 Crore from Suppliers

CBI busts Rail Neer Scam in Railways; seizes Rs.27 Crore from Suppliers

New Delhi: The CBI on Saturday recovered Rs 27 Crore in cash during searches at 13 locations against two former Northern Railways officials and seven private firms in connection with alleged corruption in supply of packaged drinking water other than mandatory ‘Rail Neer’ in premium trains.

CBI sources said a case has been registered against the then Chief Commercial Managers (PS and Catering) of Northern Railways M S Chalia and Sandeep Silas. The Ministry of Railways announced earlier that two officials whose homes were raided by the CBI stand suspended.


CBI also recovered fake currency of Rs 4 lakh among Rs 27 crore recovered from Railway caterers during its searches.

Sources said, the agency stumbled upon unaccounted cash which was so huge that it took 15 hours of counting the currency with the help of three counting machines and five officials of the agency.

The agency has also booked private companies RK Associates Pvt Ltd, Satyam Caterers Pvt Ltd, Ambuj Hotel and Real Estate, PK Associates Pvt Ltd, Sunsine Pvt Ltd, Brandavan Food Product and Food World under Prevention of Corruption Act provisions. Silas has served as the private secretary of a former Union Minister.

They said cash recovery of Rs 20 crore was made from the residence of Shyam Bihari Agrawal, his sons Abhishek Agrawal and Rahul Agarwal who own RK Associates and Brandavan Food Product.

irctc railneer racket cbiAgrawal, who hails from Durg in Chhattisgarh, started as a small time caterer somewhere in 2004 and slowly increased the business taking the turnover of his company to around Rs 500 crore catering in almost all the Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains, the sources said.

They said cash of Rs 1 crore was recovered from the office of his firms while Rs 52 lakh was recovered from the residence of his Chief Executive Officer.

The sources said CBI may slap charges of fake currency on Agrawal.

They said Agrawal, who was allegedly carrying on with fraud of selling cheap water in place of Rail Neer since 2012 in the trains, had purchased lot of land in the national capital region and owns luxury hotels in Noida, Ghaziabad, Navi Mumbai, Raipur.

They said he used his connections with the Railway officials to allegedly grab lucrative contracts of restaurants on Railway premises.

The two former Chief Commercial Managers Northern Railways (Catering division) were suspended in the wee hours of Saturday morning after CBI registered a case against them for allegedly showing favour to private firms which provided cheap packaged drinking water (PDW) to premium trains instead of the mandatory “Rail Neer”. The agency on October 16 carried out searches at 13 locations in NCR which included premises of two Chief Commercial Managers of Railways and private companies which included the two firms run by Agrawal.

It is alleged that the accused Railway officials had shown favour to private firms in supply of cheap packaged drinking water (PDW) other than mandatory ‘Rail Neer’ in premium trains including Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express.

The officers identified as Sandeep Silas and MS Chalia, posted as Chief Project Manager (FOIS) and Chief Claims officer, respectively, now might be facing arrest if the probe agency deems it necessary to question them. Silas has served as the private secretary to three former Union ministers including Oscar Fernandes, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ambika Soni.

CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said it was further alleged that the Railway Board had prescribed that IRCTC shall provide Rail Neer at a rate of Rs 10.50 (approx) per bottle to the private caterers and the private caterers will be paid Rs 15 (approx) per bottle for supplying the same to passengers in premium trains.

According to sources the probe into their role has further widened after CBI recovered incriminating documents from the premises of private firms which were allegedly shown favour by the two officials. According to a CBI source, the probe agency is not only looking into the supply of bottled water, but also into restaurants located at railway stations that belonged to the catering firms which were in the good books of the officials. The agency is also looking into the catering products and food served in premium trains including Shatabdi and Rajdhani express. However, the private suppliers in order to obtain undue gain, were allegedly supplying cheap packaged water, other than “Rail Neer”, available in the market at a rate of Rs 5.70 to Rs 7 (approx) per bottle, thereby causing gain to themselves and loss to the exchequer, the official said.

Searches are being conducted today at 13 places in Delhi and Noida which led to recovery of cash amount of more than Rs 20 crore (approx) and a large number of incriminating documents — Devpreet Singh, Spokesperson, CBI
“The accused public servants allegedly did not take any action against the private parties providing catering services in the premium trains despite repeated requests of IRCTC for non-picking of allotted quota of ‘Rail Neer’ by Private Caterers,” the spokesperson said.

CBI said directions of Railway Board to ensure supply of “Rail Neer” in premium trains were also ignored by the officials thereby causing undue pecuniary advantage to the private parties and corresponding loss to IRCTC.

“The accused public servants allegedly did not take any action against the private parties providing catering services in the premium trains despite repeated requests of IRCTC for non-picking of allotted quota of “Rail Neer” by private caterers and directions of Railway Board to ensure supply of “Rail Neer” PDW in premium trains, thereby causing undue pecuniary advantage to the private parties and corresponding loss to IRCTC,” said Devpreet Singh, CBI spokesperson.

On Friday the probe agency conducted searches on premises of at least seven private firms based in Delhi and recovered Rs20 crores in cash. CBI officials told that the amount that has been recovered has increased to a whopping Rs28 crores. “The money was stuffed in 27 large bags and hidden in various locations raided by the agency,” said a CBI official.

The companies booked by CBI are RK Associates Pvt Ltd, Satyam Caterers Pvt Ltd, Ambuj Hotel and Real Estate, PK Associates Pvt Ltd, Sunsine Pvt Ltd, Brandavan Food Product and Food World, under Prevention of Corruption Act.

“A large number of incriminating documents have also been recovered,” said the CBI spokesperson.

Officials told that the most of the money was recovered from the residence of Shyam Bihari Agrawal, his sons Abhishek Agrawal and Rahul Agarwal, who own RK Associates and Brandavan Food Product World.

“Mr Agarwal was a small-time businessman in Chhattisgarh nearly two decades ago. Examination of accounts of one his firms shows that he has a turnover of more than Rs500 crore,” said a CBI official privy to the investigation. According to the official, the close relations Agarwal shared with senior officials of the railways had helped him to accumulate vast sums of money.

According to officials, the Railway Board had prescribed that IRCTC shall provide “Rail Neer” at a rate of rupees 10.50 per bottle to the private caterers who in return would be paid rupees 15 per bottle for supplying the same to the passengers in premium trains . The private caterers however in order to obtain undue gain were allegedly supplying cheap PDW brands, instead of “Rail Neer”, which were available in the market at a rate Rs5.70 to Rs7 per bottle. The agency said the total amount of loss to the exchequer is yet to be calculated
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Friday, 8 May 2015

09:08

No Confirmed Tickets at 8 am in ticket counters- The Great Railway Scam

The Great Railway Scam: This is why you can never book a ticket at 8 am

Your chances of securing confirmed train tickets on popular routes just went up.The Railways has zeroed in on the biggest reason behind the perennial complaint of passengers not being able to get confirmed tickets even after turning up at the ticket counters at 8 am,when they open across India.

An internal investigation revealed that every day,4000 confirmed berths would be hoarded by touts within one minute of the computer reservation system being thrown open to public.

The probe found that the touts who sell tickets at a higher price to passengers in need, were exploiting a 'facility' in the passenger reservation software.The facility allows someone who has already purchased a ticket to alter journey details and book another train within seconda at the last moment.Touts would buy tickets for relatively less popular trains a day earlier, and then swap them for tickets on popular trains- Rajdhanis,Durontos and other long distance trains between 8am and 8.01 am.This would take seconds since their booking details were already fed into the system.

"Touts would buy any ticket a day in advance and the next day,they would get ticket details changed.The booking clerk merely had to generate another PNR with the passenger details already fed into the system a day earlier.This took seconds".Ajay shukla Member (Traffic)Railway Board,told The Indian Express "we have now disabled this facility for the first hour after the system opens,"he added.

The probe, launched after the Railway Ministry found a huge number of tickets being booked this way, also indicated that booking clerks and other insiders were involved in the racket.The Ministry plans now plans to pinpoint the culprits and take action.

After disabling the facility for the first hour, the Railway Board officials monitored the booking pattern across the country for the past few days. Now instead of 4000 journey/train changes in the first minute,only a few such changes of the day."We believe those are genuine transactions by passengers altering their journeys"Shukla said.

 Source :Govemployees.
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Wednesday, 6 May 2015

07:11

CBI set to file first FIR in multi-crore Railways freight scam

CBI set to file first FIR in multi-crore Railways freight scam 

The CBI is set to file its first FIR in connection with the multi-crore Railways freight weighment scam it had unearthed last month.
According to sources, the FIR would be filed against some private vendors involved in the weighment process, Railway officials, as well as two cement firms that are suspected to be beneficiaries due to the scam.


The CBI, along with the Railways Vigilance department, had unearthed a “highly sophisticated” railway freight scam in which the software that automatically weighs goods on wagons passing over weigh-bridges was manipulated, causing “huge financial loss” to the government.

The scam is alleged to have been perpetrated through collusion of Railway officials, private vendors and freight operators.

The CBI had received inputs that the weighing system at several places had been manipulated in such a way that over-loading of a wagon was concealed and the weight shown to be within the permissible limit. The CBI then conducted checks at 65 Electronic In-Motion Weigh Bridges (EIMWBs) across the country in which systematic under-weighment at many locations, leading to the EIMWB recording a lower than actual weight, was found. At some of locations, the quantum of under-weighment increased with an increase in speed of the rake.

Source : The Indian Express
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