The CBI has registered a fresh case against retired railway engineer AK Kathpal for having acquired disproportionate assets worth Rs 14 crore. Kathpal was arrested last year on corruption charges.
Officials said that during the last two years of his service, Kathpal was arrested in July 2021 for accepting a bribe of Rs 5.89 crore for awarding various tenders. He was nabbed while accepting Rs 50 lakh in cash from Hamsa Venugopalan, Director, Universal Engineers Chennai Pvt Ltd.
The agency had alleged that Venugopalan was helping Kathpal as a middleman in receiving bribes on his behalf. Along with this, the bribe of Rs 5.89 crore taken by him was also kept with him as a custodian. Kathpal, a 1984-batch Indian Railway Service mechanical engineering officer, started collecting bribe money in small chunks after his retirement to avoid the eyes of agencies.
The new CBI FIR said that Kathpal was posted as Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer at Integral Coach Factory, Chennai from 26 February 2019 to 31 March 2021. During this, he has amassed assets worth Rs 14.61 crore in the name of himself and his family especially son and daughter, which is more than his known sources of income.
The agency alleged that assets worth Rs 14.61 crore were 544 per cent more than his known sources of income. Last year, the agency had raided nine locations, including the residence of Kathpal’s brother Sanjay. In this, in addition to cash of Rs 2.75 crore, 23 kg gold was also found.
Follow our WhatsApp Channel- Click here 👇!
