Chennai: CBI officials who went looking for a golden nest egg ended up holding a duck and a lame one at that.
The CBI team, which throughout Tuesday night had rummaged through the special compartment of ICF chief security commissioner S.K. Parhi, failed to locate the 'cash and gold' that they believed the officer was taking to his hometown from Chennai on the Tiruchy - Howrah Mail.
The CBI team intercepted the train at Egmore, Chennai just before the compartment got attached to the train. The sleuths claimed they had a 'tip off ' that Parhi was taking gold and a huge amount of cash by his special compartment to his hometown Bhubaneswar. With Mr Parhi, a senior IPS officer holding IG rank, present right through the search operation, the CBI teams spent six hours searching for the 'booty' and finally gave up at 4 am on Wednesday. The officer was allowed to go home after that.
The sleuths had taken the wagon from Egmore station to the Chetpet yard to inspect it thoroughly. While CBI sources confirmed to DC that nothing incriminating was found in the search, a senior CBI official, when contacted, maintained that the probe was on and no final word could be said now. "We don't want to say anything now. It may jeopardise the probe," he said adding that searches were conducted based on specific information.
Sources said that Mr Parhi had loaded household articles to take to his hometown and sleuths checked through entire consignment but could not fish out anything worthwhile. “Parhi attended office on Wednesday,” ICF sources said.
Despite repeated attempts by this newspaper to reach the officer, he could not be contacted as he refused to answer calls and text messages.
