Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a senior executive of IRCTC, Tridib Banerjee, from his office in Mumbai, and Amar Thakkar of Araha Hospitality, who was allegedly found with Rs 4.6 lakh cash on him, in a bribery case. Araha Hospitality provides catering services on Tejas trains, and the CBI alleged that Thakkar had bribed Banerjee through a middleman, Deepak Parmar, for clearing his bills.The CBI produced the duo before the court on Thursday, where Banerjee argued that the money he received in his bank account from Parmar was a personal loan and not a bribe. But the court didn’t accept his explanation and remanded the two accused into CBI custody till July 27. The CBI also booked Parmar in the case.The catering service provider was awarded a tender to provide on-board catering and allied services in Ahmedabad-Mumbai and Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas trains by IRCTC. In Tejas trains, meal costs are included in the ticket fare, which is later claimed by the catering contractor from IRCTC by raising bills periodically. Banerjee allegedly accepted bribes from Thakkar for clearing his pending bills at Mumbai West Zone office.During the accused remand hearing, special public prosecutor Sandeep Singh, representing the CBI, informed the court that at the time of arrest in Banerjee’s office, Thakkar was found in possession of Rs 4.6 lakh cash, for which no plausible explanation was given by him.The CBI alleged that in April, Thakkar asked Parmar to give Rs 2 lakh to Banerjee. Parmar deposited the money into Banerjee’s bank account via four ATM transactions. In June, Thakkar visited Banerjee and requested him to clear more bills; again, on instruction of Thakkar, Parmar deposited Rs 2 lakh into Banerjee’s account.The CBI informed the court that after receipt of source information, necessary inquiry was done, during which the investigating officer came across the transcript of the call record between Banerjee, Thakkar and Parmar. All those transcripts, as per prosecution, indicate demand and acceptance of bribe, and Banerjee’s bank account details indicated cash credit from the month of January till June.
