NEW DELHI, May 30: The CBI has slapped a fresh case of allegedly amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 14 crore on retired railway engineer A K Kathpal who was arrested last year on corruption charges, officials said.
Kathpal was arrested in July 2021 in a bribery case of Rs 5.89 crore for various tenders awarded during the last two years of his service. He was arrested while allegedly receiving Rs 50 lakh cash from Hamsa Venugopalan, the director of Universal Engineers Chennai Private Limited.
The agency had alleged that Venugopalan was aiding Kathpal as a conduit for collecting bribes on his behalf and also as a custodian for keeping the alleged illegal gratification of Rs 5.89 crore received on his behalf.
Post-retirement, Kathpal, a 1984-batch Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering officer, had allegedly started to collect these bribes in small portions to avoid scrutiny of agencies, it had said.
“Kathpal, while posted and functioning as Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer, Integral Coach Factory, Chennai from February 26, 2019 to March 31, 2021, intentionally enriched himself illicitly and acquired assets…To the tune of Rs 14.61 crore in his name and in the name of his family members namely his son and daughter, which are disproportionate to his ‘known sources of income’ for which he cannot satisfactorily account for,” the fresh FIR against the retired railway engineer said.
The agency has alleged that Rs 14.61 crore of disproportionate assets was 544 per cent over his known sources of income.
During searches at nine locations last year, including the residence of Kathpal’s brother Sanjay, the CBI had recovered Rs 2.75 crore in cash, besides about 23 kg of gold which was found during the operation at Delhi and Chennai. (PTI)
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