CBI books Railtel director for alleged criminal misconduct

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Railtel Director Ashutosh Vasant and private firm United Telecom Limited. This is in consortium with US-based Infinera for alleged criminal misconduct in travels of officials to the US in 2012, the agency said on Thursday (November 28).

It is alleged that Vasant, the then general manager, booked a business class ticket in Air India for his official visit to Chicago via San Francisco in 2012. On the route from San Francisco to Chicago, he used an economy ticket on America Airways, officials said.

Railtel Corporation of India Limited made the payment to the travel agency on the request of Vasant on the production of invoice and e-ticket, they said.

Setup in 2000, Railtel, a Miniratna company, runs a nationwide broadband, telecom and multimedia network to modernise train control operation and safety system of Indian Railways. It is alleged that Vasant travelled by economy class and raised a bill for business class, the officials said.

He allegedly did not produce any journey documents in order to hide the cheating committed by him in the purchase of tickets, the CBI said. United Telecom Limited had paid for hotel bills of Vasant but he allegedly got an affidavit that he had returned the payment to the company in cash, it said.

On the recommendation of Vasant and two other officials, Railtel selected the consortium of UTL and Infinera, which were alleged to be non-compliant vendors, for the tender of Dense Wave Division Multiplexing technology, the agency said.