Ranchi, Oct. 14: A junior engineer of road construction department, wanted for allegedly swindling funds meant for bitumen procurement and declared an absconder by a CBI court in 2013, was arrested by the CBI from his Dhurwa residence in the state capital on Tuesday night.

Shockingly enough, the department had revoked the suspension of Shiv Muni Ram, wanted in three cases related to the bitumen scam, a fortnight ago despite the CBI judge Mohan Choubey declaring him an absconder in 2013. His properties were attached by the CBI some four months ago following the court order.

"Ram was wanted in three cases - 14/2009, 19/2009 and 01/2010 - related to misappropriation of funds sanctioned for buying bitumen when he was posted as a junior engineer in Daltonganj (Palamau division) in 2008-09. Under suspension, he was declared an absconder by a CBI court. During intelligence gathering, we found out that his suspension was revoked a fortnight ago and he joined at the Ranchi headquarters," a senior CBI officer of the anti-corruption branch told The Telegraph.

Ram was placed under suspension around 2009 after his name surfaced in the CBI FIR.

Asked how the department reinstated Ram, principal secretary of road construction department Rajbala Verma said: "Departmental actions were taken against him following his alleged involvement in the bitumen scam. I think his suspension was revoked following a high court order. But I am not sure I need to check it."

No other official was ready to speak on the matter.

Today, Ram was produced before the CBI court of Ranjana Asthana that forwarded him to judicial custody for 14 days. He was sent to Birsa Munda Central Jail.

All three cases concern swindling public money in crores by preparing forged invoices of bitumen procurement in different road construction, reinforcement and repair projects under Palamau division of road construction department.

Ram was booked, along with the department's assistant engineer Fardi Nand Kispotta, executive engineers Baleshwar Baitha and Hiraman Mahato, and junior engineer Uday Tiwari, besides Kalawati Construction under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 468 and 471 (forgery) of the IPC and sections 13(2), 13(1)(D) of the PC Act.

Contractor-turned-politician S.N. Tiwari, who won from Garhwa Assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2014, was also named accused as he happened to be one of the directors of Kalawati Construction, which had bagged contracts for road construction.

But the MLA got a reprieve from Jharkhand High Court on technical grounds. He had resigned as the director when the company had bagged contracts.