New Delhi, December 31: The CBI has initiated a departmental inquiry into Western Railways’ allegation that the agency’s recent train searches was an act of retaliation after a CBI officer was asked to get down from train following objection from fellow passengers to his drinking liquor.
The incident on board the New-Delhi Mumbai Rajdhani Express apparently sparked a tussle between the investigating agency and Western Railways after a CBI team boarded the train from Baroda in Gujarat and conducted searches on all ticket collectors and attendants, sources said.
The incident took place after the train left New Delhi station on Wednesday evening and the CBI officer settled down to have a drink. Another passenger, wife of a senior railway officer based in Mumbai, took objection to this, they said.
When the officer did not pay heed to her request, she reported the matter to a coach attendant who in turn told her that the passenger was assistant sub-inspector of the Delhi unit of CBI and hence should be left alone.
The woman then got in touch with her husband who alerted another colleague and the ticket collector on the train was ordered to ask the CBI officer to alight at Kota station.
After the CBI officer was forcibly removed from the train,surprise checks were conducted in the same train by CBI sleuths who boarded the train at Baroda station. A graft case was registered against the ticket collector who asked the inebriated CBI officer to alight the train at Kota, they said.
Perturbed by this, the Western Railways shot off a letter to CBI director A P Singh explaining the “unjust” action taken by the agency’s officers and said that such incidents did not auger well for the agency.
Highly placed sources in CBI said a departmental enquiry has been initiated into the incident as many “co-incidences”were involved in the case.
According to a senior CBI officer from Anti Corruption Bureau (Mumbai), the searches on Rajdhani and August Kranti trains are part of routine festive-season action across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa.
The claims of the senior officer were not taken on face value by the headquarters who have asked for a thorough probe into the incident, the sources said.
–PTI