The Central Bureau of Investigation carried out searches inas many as 14 locations in Guwahati on Thursday after it booked six employeesof the Northeast Frontier Railway in connection with an over Rs 100 crorefraudulent advertisement scam, officials said on Friday.

“We carried out searches in 14 places including official andresidential premises of some accused and others on Thursday. Importantdocuments pertaining to the case and electronic evidence has been recovered,”said a CBI official on condition of anonymity. The FIR registered by the ACB,Guwahati on July 2 names six employees including a senior public relationsofficer (construction) of the NFR and notes that between 2014 and 2018, “theyentered into criminal conspiracy among themselves and other unknown persons tocheat NF Railways with dishonest intention and thereby prepared , submitted,accepted, passed and disbursed huge amount of money against fake bills relatingto advertisement of approved Notice Inviting Tenders (NITs) in variousnewspapers…”

The FIR was registered under sections 120 B, 409, 420, 466,468, 471 and Sections 13(2) read with Section 13(1) (c) and (d) of thePrevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The FIR alleges that the accused, one ofwhom have since retired, have “falsely created records, as they had given NITsadvertisements in the newspapers which in fact are not in circulation at all.They have fraudulently passed more than one bill for same advertisement…” TheFIR notes the alleged fraud led to a loss of more than Rs 100 crore to the NFR.The FIR mentions names of newspapers like Aami Asomor Janagan, Kolkata Tenderand Auction News, Sadhbhawna ka Prateek among others. It also claims thatdouble payments were made to them even as they were either not in circulationor in circulation in a limited area.

The FIR alleges NFR made an expenditure of Rs 157.54 croreagainst “5482 bills towards fraudulent advertisements” between 2014 and 2018. Aspokesperson of the NFR (Construction) refused to comment.