NEW DELHI:  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday has arrested an officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME), posted as Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer (DME) with the South East Central Railway (SECR) in Bhilai, in connection with a bribery case.

The CBI registered the case on August 13 against the accused officer following allegations that he had demanded an undue advantage of Rs 2 lakh from the complainant for clearing pending bills. After negotiations, the accused agreed to accept Rs 1 lakh as a bribe.

The agency laid a trap on August 13 and caught the Senior DME allegedly accepting Rs 50,000 as the first instalment of the demanded bribe. The amount was allegedly handed over through a tout, who collected the money from the complainant on the accused officer’s instructions.

Following the trap, the CBI conducted searches at the accused officer’s residential and official premises in Raipur and Bhilai.

During the searches, the agency recovered cash amounting to approximately Rs 77 lakh and jewellery valued at around Rs 14 lakh.

The accused Senior DME, along with the alleged tout, was arrested on August 14 and produced before the competent court. The court subsequently granted four days of police custody of both accused persons.

The investigation in the case is underway.

In another development, the CBI on August 14 had arrested proclaimed offender (PO) Masad Seikh in connection with the murder of Trinamool Congress gram panchayat leader Bhadu Sheikh. The accused was apprehended from Wari Bander in Mumbai’s Dongri area.

According to the agency, Masad Seikh had been absconding since the registration of an FIR in 2022 and had not joined the investigation or trial. He was arrested based on human intelligence and technical inputs, the CBI said.

The agency had registered the case on April 8, 2022, following an order of the Calcutta High Court and took over the FIR registered at Rampurhat Police Station on March 22, 2022.

Bhadu Sheikh, a Trinamool Congress gram panchayat leader, was murdered on March 21, 2022, at Bogtui in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.