The CBI has registered a case of corruption against a former staffer of the then Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who quit the BJP last year and joined the Trinamool Congress.
The CBI has named Sushanta Mallick, Supriyo's former staff member, in the FIR for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from businessman Ashutosh Bandopadhyay in 2016 when Supriyo was the Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in the BJP government at the Centre, officials said on Monday.
According to the FIR, along with Mallick, some former executives of Engineering Projects India Limited (EPIL), which comes under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, were indulged in the corruption.
The CBI has also named SPS Bakshi, the then CMD of EPIL, Harcharan Pal, former EPIL executive director, Paritosh Kumar Praveen, the then manager of EPIL, RS Tyagi, the then DGM, and Ashutosh Bandopadhyay, among others, the officials said.
The CBI had received a complaint on March 12, 2021, regarding the alleged corruption which was "verified" by the agency. The verification revealed that Bakshi, Pal, Praveen and Tyagi allegedly conspired and demanded Rs 50 lakh from Bandopadhyay for favouring in tenders awarded by EPIL during 2016-17, they said.
The CBI has alleged that Bakshi received Rs 40 lakh and Rs 10 lakh was given to Pal and Praveen, they said. Bakshi conveyed through Tyagi that out of Rs 40 lakh meant for him, Rs 5 lakh be transferred into the bank account of Mallick which were transferred in 2016 by Bandopadhyay, the CBI has alleged in the FIR.
Supriyo, who was the Union Minister from 2016 to 2019, had joined TMC in September last year and later won the assembly by-election from Ballygunge in West Bengal.
