Jamshedpur, July 11: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths caught a railway official, literally red-handed, while accepting bribe at his home from a Grade-IV employee.

The accused, Samir Kumar Datta, an inspector of the personnel department, was nabbed accepting Rs 5,000 as bribe from one Mahesh Mukhi.

According to sources in the CBI, Mahesh Mukhi, who wanted to get a job after his father’s death, had entered into negotiations for paying money to get his papers processed. Mukhi promised to pay Datta, the inspector of personnel, South Eastern Railway, Chakradharpur division. He also tipped off the anti-corruption bureau of the CBI in Ranchi.

According to sources, the sleuths in CBI’s anti-corruption bureau first probed whether someone from the railway had demanded money for processing Mukhi’s papers.

When the premier agency found the allegation to be true, they deputed a team which ultimately nabbed Datta red-handed while accepting the bribe.

Shantanu Kar, the deputy superintendent of police, CBI, Ranchi, said that on the basis of definite information, a seven-member team of the premier investigation agency set out for Jamshedpur.

“We came to Parsudih at Datta’s residence, where Mukhi paid him Rs 5,000. Soon after the transaction, the CBI sleuths swooped on the house of Datta and caught him red-handed,” said Kar.

“Before the money was handed over to Datta, we had smeared a specific kind of chemical on the currency notes and as the notes exchanged hands, the CBI sleuths caught Datta and immersed the currency notes as well as hands of the railway officer in water, which turned red,” he said.

He said when the water turned red, the CBI immediately took the railway officer under custody. Datta was arrested under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. “We are taking the inspector of personnel department, South Eastern Railway, to Ranchi where he would be lodged in jail and tried in a court of the Central Bureau of Investigation,” said the deputy superintendent of police.

Mukhi’s father Chait Ram, who was an employee in the South Eastern Railway had died of illness, and after his son grew up, he approached them for a job on compassionate grounds.