CBI raids office, houses of two RSP officials

Bhubaneswar: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths on Wednesday raided the office and residence of two senior Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) officers - Harekrushna Behera and AK Karmakar - on charges of irregularities in goods procurement.

The search operation is being carried out at six places in Rourkela and one place in Bengaluru, a CBI spokesperson said in New Delhi.

Sources said Behera, currently posted as Assistant General Manager (Coke Oven) in the plant allegedly amassed crores of rupees through procurement of electrical equipment and machinery 3-4 years back. Though an official tender in this regard was invited by the company, he managed to ‘manipulate’ the tender in favour of a particular company for financial gains, the sources added.

The sources said Karmakar had helped Behera in the manipulation of the tender process.

Apart from the houses and residences of the two RSP officials, proprietors of M/S Pradeep Trading Co are also being raided, the CBI spokesperson said.

Four separate teams have been engaged in the search operation, which were still on when reports came in last.