Mumbai, Oct 2 — The CBI arrested an Executive Engineer of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Mumbai, his relative and three officials of a Mumbai-based real estate group, in a Rs 50 lakh bribery case related to the issuance of a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for a land parcel, an official said on Friday.
Vikrant Verma, Executive Engineer, CPWD Mumbai; Saurav Gupta, Verma’s relative based in Pune; and Arvind Semwal, Vice President, Baya Company, were among those named in the FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday, the official said.
The arrested accused were produced before the Special CBI Judge in Mumbai on Friday, the official said in a statement.
The accused were booked by the CBI for penal offences including criminal conspiracy, bribing a public servant, taking undue advantage, influencing a public servant by corrupt or illegal means or by exercise of personal influence, obtaining undue advantage without consideration by a public servant and abetment, the statement said.
The FIR said that the real estate company wanted to obtain an NOC from CPWD Mumbai in respect of a parcel of land at Antop Hill, South Mumbai. It wanted the NOC to state that the CPWD had no claim on the aforementioned tract of land, which would enable Baya Company to carry out a construction project there.
It was alleged that the accused Executive Engineer demanded undue advantage of Rs 1 crore, later reduced it to Rs 70 lakh, through his relative, for issuing the NOC.
The FIR said, “Source information revealed that on September 30, Saurav Gupta and Vikrant Verma had a discussion where it was mentioned by Gupta that he is considering summoning Semwal to a location near the mall opposite the L&T building in Navi Mumbai.”
“He further said that he would collect the cash and would depart for Pune straightaway,” the FIR said.
The CBI laid a trap on Thursday and caught the relative of the accused public servant while he was carrying the bribe amount of Rs 50 lakh, which he had accepted from the Vice President of the real estate group on behalf of the Executive Engineer, said the statement.
The Executive Engineer was apprehended at Vashi, Navi Mumbai, where he was waiting to receive the bribe. A manager of the real estate group and a partner of the firm seeking the NOC, who were present during the transaction, were also arrested, the CBI said.
While approving the registration of the FIR, CBI Superintendent of Police Amit Vasava noted, “The aforementioned commissions and omissions on the part of Vikrant Verma, Saurav Gupta, Arvind Semwal and other unidentified individuals constitute offences U/s 7,7A, 8, 11 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and U/s 61 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.”
The construction firm has its registered office at 203-ZO4,2nd Floor, Orbit Plaza, New Prabhadevi Road, Mumbai and is represented by its partners Vilas Kharche and Anil Deshmukh. Arvind Semwal is currently occupying the position of vice president at the company, said the FIR.
It was further found during the investigation that the NOC was issued without an entry in the dispatch register against payment of Rs 50 lakh, with the balance of Rs 20 lakh to be paid after a week, the CBI said.
Searches were subsequently conducted at the premises of the accused and their associates in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune, which led to the recovery of cash of about Rs 53.87 lakh (in addition to the bribe amount of Rs 50 Lakh), documents relating to immovable properties and other documents, the CBI said.