The CBI has arrested Northeast Frontier Railway Chief Electrical Engineer V K Upadhyay and recovered ₹ 2.19 crore in connection with a bribery case in which his deputy Ranjit Kumar Borah was arrested while allegedly receiving ₹ 15 lakh bribe, officials said on Wednesday.

The agency had carried out searches at the premises of the accused in nine locations, including Guwahati, Patna and Noida, on Tuesday, leading to the recovery of around ₹ 2.19 crore in cash and several incriminating documents.

“Out of this, cash of ₹ 2.13 crore (approximately) and details of three flats in Noida were found at the premises of Chief Engineer (Upadhyay),” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.

He said that during searches at the premises of Borah, the agency recovered around ₹ 6 lakh in cash and details of six flats, including in Guwahati, in his name and that of his family members.

It is alleged that Borah was favouring a Patna-based company, Sun Shine Device Pvt. Ltd., in projects of Northeast Frontier Railway, they said.

After registering the FIR, the CBI carried out a raid when Niraj Kumar, an employee of company director Chintan Jain, was delivering the bribe to Borah, they said.

Borah, Jain and Kumar were arrested by the agency. During investigation, the role of Upadhyay also surfaced who was then taken into custody.

It is alleged that the company had given Borah two benami properties in return for favours extended by him, they said.

“It was alleged that the public servant while posted earlier as Deputy Chief Electrical Engineer (Construction) in NFR had obtained two immovable properties, viz. benami flats, as alleged illegal gratification from the director of the private company,” Joshi said.

It was further alleged that the accused demanded a bribe of ₹ 2.10 crore from Jain in lieu of the flats for extending undue benefits to him in the past and promising such help in future, officials said.

The company allegedly had made partial payments in several installments in the past, they said.

The CBI got information that ₹ 15 lakh cash from the alleged bribery will be paid on Tuesday in Maligaon, Guwahati following which the raid was organised and Borah was nabbed in the process of receiving the money, they said.