Kolkata, Jan 18 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the alleged bribes paid to Indian Railways' Additional Divisional Manager, Guwahati, Jitendra Pal Singh, has reportedly seized Rs 1.28 crore from residences of railway contractors under scanner at Siliguri and Cooch Behar districts in West Bengal.

The contractors at whose residences at Siliguri and Cooch Behar where the raid and search operations were conducted by the central agency sleuths have been identified Bishnu Gupta, Suresh Gupta, and Dilip Ghosh.

According to a statement issued by CBI, the total recovery on this count from all accused has now come to around Rs 1.75 crore.

A case was registered on January 14 against Jitendra Pal Singh and others including the contractors. It was alleged that the accused had entered into a conspiracy with the intention of showing undue favours to the private contractors in awarding of contract agreements, preparation of measurement book, processing of running account bills, and early release of payment against pending bills.

According to the CBI statement, the central agency had laid a trap and caught an acquaintance of Singh, while accepting a bribe of Rs 50 lakh on behalf of Singh. delivered through 'hawala' channels.

"Searches were earlier conducted at the premises of ADRM and others in various locations including Delhi, Narora, Guwahati, Siliguri, and Aligarh which had led to recovery of R. 47 lakh (approx) cash, laptops and several incriminating documents," the statement said.

Seven accused were arrested in said bribery case. "All the seven arrested accused were produced before the competent court and were remanded to police custody. At present, five accused are in police custody and two are in judicial custody," the CBI statement added.