In a major corruption probe within Indian Railways, the Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a senior section engineer of South Central Railway alongside a private individual after catching the official red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 15 lakh in Vijayawada. The illicit payment was reportedly delivered to expedite the approval and release of an early-completion bonus claim worth approximately Rs 7 crore.
The arrested public servant has been identified as Bapiraju, a Senior Section Engineer serving in the office of the Chief Signal and Telecommunications Engineer (CSTE) Projects, South Central Railway, Vijayawada. The second suspect, identified as Srichand, is the son of the Managing Director of Yella Constructions Pvt. Ltd., a private infrastructure firm involved in major railway signal modernization contracts.
Manipulation of Files for a Rs 7 Crore Bonus Claim
According to official investigative filings released by the central agency, the case stems from a high-value Automatic Block Signalling project valued at Rs 179.50 crore awarded by South Central Railway to a joint venture comprising Ganapathi Engineering Works and Yella Constructions Pvt. Ltd.
Following execution of the signaling infrastructure, the joint venture submitted a formal claim for a completion bonus amounting to nearly Rs 7 crore, asserting that contractual milestones had been met ahead of the stipulated deadline. However, intelligence gathered by the CBI revealed that key officials within the CSTE Projects office in Vijayawada had allegedly altered and manipulated official file records and dates to create a false record of early completion, thereby extending undue favor to the private firm to ensure approval of the multi-crore payout.
Red-Handed Interception and Multi-City Searches
Investigative intelligence indicated that the Managing Director of the construction firm had arranged for his son, Srichand, to personally transport and hand over the initial installment of Rs 15 lakh to the senior railway engineer while traveling between Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.
Acting on actionable intelligence, a specialized team from the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Bureau laid an operational trap and intercepted the transaction. Officers caught Bapiraju red-handed as he accepted the cash delivery from Srichand, recovering the entire bribe amount of Rs 15 lakh on the spot.
Following the arrests, CBI operational units launched coordinated search operations across multiple locations linked to the accused and key corporate entities in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Pithapuram, and Hyderabad. Investigators seized digital records, project files, and financial documents to uncover the full scope of the bribery network and identify any auxiliary public servants or private representatives involved in altering official project logs.
Both suspects were formally remanded into custody and scheduled for production before the designated CBI Special Court in Vijayawada. Federal investigators confirmed that the probe remains ongoing as forensic teams audit historical project approvals and bonus claims submitted across the South Central Railway network.
