Rourkela: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s Rourkela unit today arrested a railway employee on charges of bribery for parcel booking in Sundargarh district of Odisha on Thursday. 

The accused official, identified as booking clerk Rajib Nandan at the Railway Parcel office in Rourkela, was caught following complaint by a customer. 

As per reports, the complainant A Singh of Rajgangpur had approached the parcel office to book delivery of four generators to Itwari on Wednesday. He enquired about the Tata-Itwari passenger train to which the clerk informed that it had been cancelled due to Non-Interlocked (NI) work in Bilaspur rail division. When Singh asked if any other train was plying on that route, Nandan demanded Rs 8000 to dispatch the consignment.

Aware of the railway guidelines, Singh offered to pay the booking charges only but the accused employee insisted on extra payment for the service. Later, Singh reported the matter to the CBI office in Rourkela. 

After verifying the authenticity of the complaint, CBI sleuths laid a trap and arrested Nandan the following day while he was accepting the bribe amount from the complainant. Initial probe revealed that Nandan had been transferred to Rourkela last year and was residing in Gopabandhupali area.

Official sources said he has been taken into custody for interrogation. His service in previous tenures will be probed as well, they informed.