Paradip Port bribery case: Number of arrests rises to 6

Bhubaneswar: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today arrested one more person in connection with Paradip Port bribery case.

The CBI sleuths arrested Sisir Kumar Dash, a builder, following interrogation in the case lodged in Delhi.

Sources said that a bribe amount of Rs 10 lakh had been given to the builder via contractor Sumant Rout, a close aide of prime accused Paradip Port’s top official Saroj Kumar Das, who has been arrested in the case.

With this, total six persons including industrialist Mahima Mishra’s son Charchit Mishra have been arrested so far in the case related to Rs 25 lakh bribery.

Earlier in the day, the CBI had arrested Charchit Mishra, the Director of Orissa Stevedores Limited (OSL), following hours of marathon grill in the case.

Also Read: CBI arrests Odisha industrialist Mahima Mishra’s son Charchit in bribery case

Meanwhile, Mahima Mishra appeared before the CBI for the second consecutive day today for interrogation in connection with the case.

Yesterday, the central agency had arrested four persons — Saroj Kumar Das, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of Paradip Port; contractor Sumant Rout, KCT Group’s Manager (Port Operations) Sankha Subhra Mitra and OSL DGM (Operations) Surya Narayan Sahoo — a day after raids in Cuttack and Paradip in the bribery case. The sleuths have also recovered Rs 84.5 lakh during searches at various locations in two cities.

As per allegations, Saroj Das was demanding and accepting bribes through his close conduit for extending undue benefits to various private stake holders engaged in port service and activities at Paradip Port.

Sources said that Sumant Rout had demanded Rs. 60 lakh as bribe on behalf of Saroj Das for repairing/replacement of the conveyor belt that was damaged while unloading cargo at Paradip Port. He collected the bribe amount of Rs. 25 lakh from Cuttack and kept Rs. 10 lakh separately for themselves. It was also alleged that Sumant handed over Rs. 10 lakh to a real estate developer in Bhubaneshwar, with whom the Chief Mechanical Engineer had allegedly booked a property.

Also Read: CBI raids on Odisha industrialist Mahima Mishra: 4 arrested so far