CBI Arrests Seven Railway Officers Across Three Zones in Bribery Cases

The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested seven railway officers over three days — Thursday, Friday and Sunday — in separate alleged bribery cases spanning three railway zones, the agency said.

Those arrested include a Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer of the South East Central Railway at Bhilai, a Senior Section Engineer of the South Central Railway at Vijayawada, and an Assistant Financial Advisor, Senior Section Officer and Office Superintendent attached to the North Western Railway at Jaipur, along with a Senior Section Officer and an Account Assistant of the North Western Railway at Bikaner.

The CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch typically acts on the basis of prior surveillance and trap operations in such cases, catching officials in the act of accepting payment before making an arrest — the agency said large amounts of cash were recovered from those held.

The spread across three zones and multiple ranks, from a mechanical engineer to a finance-side section officer, points to bribery allegations touching both operational and administrative functions within the railways rather than a single department.

The arrests follow a pattern the CBI has maintained through the year of periodic, zone-wide anti-corruption operations within Indian Railways, one of the agency's largest sources of corruption cases given its scale and the volume of contracts and procurement it handles.

All seven officers face prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act, with the CBI expected to seek custodial remand to question them further on the source and scale of the alleged payments.

The CBI did not disclose the case numbers or the total cash recovered in its initial statement on the arrests.