Patna: A special vigilance court has sentenced an executive engineer of Bihar’s road construction department to four years in prison for demanding a large bribe from a private contractor. The court found Suresh Prasad Singh guilty of seeking illegal money in connection with a major road project worth about Rs 40 crore. Along with him, department cashier Shashi Bhushan Kumar was also convicted in the case. The verdict brings closure to a case that has been under trial for nearly six years.
The case is linked to a road construction project awarded to Infracon Project India Ltd for building a road from Gonwa Mod to Amhara. According to the prosecution, Singh deliberately delayed the signing of the project agreement, forcing the company’s owner, Akhilesh Kumar Jaiswal, to make repeated visits to his office. Only after Jaiswal filed a complaint with higher officials was the agreement finally approved, allowing construction work to begin.
After completing around seven kilometres of the road, the company approached Singh for a secure advance payment, which is a normal process in such projects. At this stage, the engineer allegedly demanded a bribe of one percent of the total project cost, which came to Rs 40 lakh. After discussions, the demand was reduced to Rs 32 lakh. Unwilling to give in quietly, the contractor approached the vigilance department and filed a formal complaint, leading to a planned trap.
On June 8, the complainant reached the engineer’s office with Rs 14 lakh as part of the bribe amount. During the transaction, two bundles of Rs 2,000 notes were handed to cashier Shashi Bhushan Kumar for counting. At that moment, the vigilance team raided the office and caught both officials red-handed with the bribe money. Later searches at Singh’s house led to the recovery of Rs 2.36 crore in cash, along with bank passbooks, cheque books, insurance papers and documents related to land investments.
Special public prosecutor Kishore Kumar Singh said the vigilance court judge, Mohd Rustam, sentenced Suresh Prasad Singh to four years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh, with an extra one-month jail term if the fine is not paid. Cashier Shashi Bhushan Kumar was sentenced to three years in one case and one year in another, along with fines totalling Rs 3 lakh. All sentences will run at the same time. The judgment is being seen as a strong warning against corruption in public works meant for the benefit of ordinary people.
