CBI court jails railway goods clerk 4 years for ₹7,200 bribery in Raebareli
Synopsis
A CBI court in Lucknow has jailed a railway goods clerk for four years after he was caught red-handed accepting a ₹7,200 bribe to reduce a demurrage charge at Dariyapur Junction in Raebareli — a case that took nearly eight years from registration to sentencing, and is part of a fresh wave of CBI anti-corruption convictions targeting public servants across Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
Key Takeaways
Durgesh Bahadur Singh , former Goods Clerk at Dariyapur Junction Railway Station, Raebareli , was sentenced to four years' imprisonment on 30 July by a special CBI court in Lucknow .
The court also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on the convict.
Singh was caught red-handed accepting a bribe of ₹7,200 to reduce a demurrage charge of ₹1.26 lakh levied on M/s R.D.
Cement Industries Pvt.
The CBI had registered the case on 13 October 2017 and filed a charge sheet on 30 November 2017 .
The conviction comes amid a broader CBI anti-corruption drive, including recent arrests of a Delhi PWD Assistant Engineer and a North Eastern Railway Sr DMM in Varanasi .
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Lucknow has convicted and sentenced Durgesh Bahadur Singh, formerly posted as Goods Clerk at Dariyapur Junction Railway Station in Raebareli district, Uttar Pradesh, to four years' imprisonment in a bribery case. The sentence was pronounced on 30 July, and the court additionally imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on the convict.
How the Bribery Case Unfolded
The CBI registered the case on 13 October 2017, following a complaint by the Director of M/s R.D. Cement Industries Pvt. Ltd., Lucknow. The complainant alleged that Singh had demanded a bribe of ₹60,000 in exchange for substantially reducing a demurrage charge of ₹1.26 lakh levied against the company. The charge had been imposed after the firm failed to unload raw materials from a railway rake within the stipulated time.
During subsequent negotiations, the accused allegedly agreed to accept a revised demurrage amount of ₹37,800 alongside an illegal gratification of ₹7,200 from the complainant.
The Trap and Arrest
Acting on the complaint, the CBI laid a trap and caught Singh red-handed while he was allegedly accepting the bribe of ₹7,200. A charge sheet was filed against the accused public servant on 30 November 2017, following the conclusion of the agency's investigation.
After examining all available evidence and completing the trial, the CBI court found Singh guilty and sentenced him accordingly, according to an official CBI statement.
CBI's Broader Anti-Corruption Drive
This conviction is part of a wider pattern of CBI enforcement actions against public servants in recent weeks. The agency recently arrested an Assistant Engineer (AE) of Delhi's Public Works Department (PWD), along with a representative and an employee of a private construction firm, in connection with an alleged bribery racket linked to a government construction project.
Separately, just a week before the Lucknow verdict, the CBI arrested a Senior Divisional Materials Manager (Sr DMM) of the North Eastern Railway (NER) in Varanasi for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹1.70 lakh. The agency has stated that it actively pursues corruption charges and takes them to their logical conclusion.
What This Verdict Signals
The case highlights how mid-level railway functionaries can exploit procedural leverage — such as demurrage assessments — to extract illegal payments from businesses. Notably, the original bribe demand of ₹60,000 was itself a fraction of the ₹1.26 lakh demurrage charge, illustrating the coercive arithmetic that often underlies such transactions.
With the conviction now on record, the CBI's pursuit of the case over nearly eight years from registration to sentencing underscores the agency's stated commitment to seeing corruption prosecutions through to completion.
Point of View
200 bribe — a sum smaller than most monthly grocery bills — has resulted in a four-year prison sentence after nearly eight years of prosecution. That timeline is the real story here: the gap between CBI trap and courtroom conviction exposes how slowly India's anti-corruption machinery grinds, even in cases with red-handed evidence. The demurrage mechanism itself deserves scrutiny — it is a known pressure point where railway staff can inflate or reduce charges with near-total discretion, creating structural conditions for exactly this kind of rent-seeking. Until that discretion is audited digitally, convictions like this will remain reactive rather than preventive.
NationPress
31 Jul 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Durgesh Bahadur Singh and what was he convicted for?
Durgesh Bahadur Singh was a Goods Clerk posted at Dariyapur Junction Railway Station in Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh. He was convicted by a special CBI court in Lucknow for accepting a bribe of ₹7,200 to reduce a demurrage charge levied on a private cement company.
What sentence did the CBI court hand down in this bribery case?
The court sentenced Singh to four years' imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹10,000. The sentence was pronounced on 30 July.
What was the demurrage charge at the centre of the case?
M/s R.D. Cement Industries Pvt. Ltd. had been levied a demurrage charge of ₹1.26 lakh for failing to unload raw materials from a railway rake within the stipulated time. Singh allegedly demanded ₹60,000 to reduce it, and was ultimately caught accepting ₹7,200 as illegal gratification.
When was the CBI case first registered?
The CBI registered the case on 13 October 2017, following a complaint by the Director of M/s R.D. Cement Industries Pvt. Ltd. A charge sheet was filed on 30 November 2017, and the trial concluded with a conviction nearly eight years later.
Is this part of a wider CBI anti-corruption crackdown?
Yes. Around the same time, the CBI arrested a Delhi PWD Assistant Engineer in connection with a construction bribery racket, and a Senior Divisional Materials Manager of North Eastern Railway in Varanasi for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹1.70 lakh. The agency has stated it pursues all corruption charges to their logical conclusion.
