Rail Neer Scam: Railway Officials Arrested, Rs 27 Cr Seized

New Delhi, Oct 18: The CBI on Sunday arrested two Indian Railways officers, Sandeep Silas and M.S. Chalia, who have been facing probe in a case relating to supply of inferior-quality packaged drinking water in premium trains.

According to a CBI release, Sandeep Silas is a 1984-batch Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer. The scam occurred during 2012-14 under UPA regime. Silas even worked as Private Secretary for two former Union Ministers – Ambika Soni and Oscar Fernandes.

M.S. Chalia, the second officer, also came under the scanner of the CBI for the alleged involvement of his son’s company in the scam.

The CBI suspected that the private catering companies could have paid illegal remittances to the officer through the company run by his son for favours shown to them for supplying inferior quality of packaged drinking water on premium trains.

On Friday, CBI registered a case against Chalia, Silas and seven 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 the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to CBI, 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. In total, Rs 27 crore cash were seized. Out of those, Rs 4 lakh were found to be fake currency.