Senior officials and workers, dealing with the canteen services of the CR, form part of the racket, reliable CBI sources said.

Several irregularities came to the fore during the raid which continued for nearly 12 hours during which the CBI team scrutinised various documents pertaining to purchases, supplies of essential commodities and food packages.

The base kitchen unit primarily caters to the food requirement of passengers travelling aboard long-distance trains. The CR has such units at Nagpur, Raipur, Bhusaval and other places for this purpose. Food packets sold on railway platforms are also supplied by these units.

The functioning of these units is controlled by different bodies like Purchase Committee, Tender Committee, et al, comprising mainlythe divisional medical officer, divisional assistant accountant and divisional commercial manager.

It has come to the notice of the raiding party that the CR was being fleeced to the tune of Rs 10 lakh each month through various dealings involving the unit here.

Records pertaining to purchase of essential commodities like wheat, rice, pulses, edible oil, wheat-flour, bread were examined in details. Most of these commodities were being diverted to the houses of railway officials, sources added.

The records pertaining to supplies of food packets, which cost Rs 20 each, revealed a short supply of packets worth Rs 2,000 each month.

On a previous occasion, the divisional commercial manager had cancelled permits of 62 food vendors while issuing a directive against grant of fresh permits till further notice. However, in contravention of this directive, at least 120 unauthorised vendors, having identity cards with photographs duly attested, were detected.

The raid was carried out by CBI inspector K N Sinhaand Sub-Inspector Shridharan.