Bhubaneswar: A day after conducting raids at several locations linked to industrialist and Managing Director (MD) of Odisha Stevedores Limited (OSL) Mahimananda Mishra (Mahima Mishra), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested four persons in connection with a case related to bribery.
The arrestees include Chief Mechanical Engineer of Paradip Port Trust, Saroj Kumar Das; his conduit Sumant Rout; DGM of Orissa Stevedores Limited, Surya Narayan Sahoo; and Manager Port Operations of KCT Group, Sankha Subhra Mitra.
A case was registered against Chief Mechanical Engineer, Paradip Port Trust (Odisha), and others including private persons, private company & unknown others. It was alleged that the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME), Paradip Port Trust (Odisha) was in the habit of demanding & accepting bribes through his close conduit for extending undue benefits to various private stakeholders engaged in port service and activities at Paradip Port.
The said conduit of CME was in close contact with Manager Port Operations (also allegedly acting as a middleman with other Cargo companies) of a private group of companies & other persons. It was further alleged that while unloading cargo, a private company based at Cuttack (Odisha), damaged the conveyor belt operational in Paradip Port.
The cost of repairing/replacement of the conveyor belt was very high. The said CME in conspiracy with conduit, middleman & Director of the said private company got it repaired at the cost of Port Trust causing huge monetary advantage to said private company. In turn, the conduit allegedly demanded Rs 60 lakh as a bribe for the said favour, allegedly on behalf of CME.
Accordingly, he collected the bribe amount of Rs 25 lakh from Cuttack and kept Rs 10 lakh separately for themselves. It was also alleged that the conduit handed over Rs 10 lakh to a real estate developer in Bhubaneshwar, with whom the Chief Mechanical Engineer had allegedly booked a property.
CBI intercepted the said conduit in Paradip and recovered Rs 5 lakh of the alleged bribe money from him. Later, Rs 18.30 lakh also as part of the alleged bribe was recovered. During further searches, Rs 20.25 lakh (approximately), jewellery, documents related to investment, and other incriminating documents were recovered from the residence of the Chief Mechanical Engineer.
Searches were also conducted at 15 locations including in Paradip, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur & Bhubaneshwar at the premises of the accused. Rs 41 lakh (approx.) was recovered from the premises of the Director of the said private company.
Reportedly, the CBI had on Thursday carried out simultaneous raids on property linked to Mishra in connection with the case. Searches were being conducted at Mishra’s residence at Odia Bazar in Cuttack, and the OSL offices at Link Road and Badapadi in Paradip. Mishra today appeared before the officials of the central agency in Bhubaneswar.
