Three excise officials arrested for taking bribe
The anti-corruption branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested three excise officials and an ad-hoc employee after they were allegedly caught accepting bribe on Tuesday.
Superintendent of Excise (Range V) RA Bobbal, Superintendent (Technical) SK Wadgane and Inspector (technical) KJ Shankarnarayan from Belapur Division II were arrested along with Deepak D Vanaye, who worked for them, said a statement issued by the CBI.
Officials said Bobbal had demanded a bribe of Rs 15, 000 from the complainant who works as a BPO consultant for issuing of Customs Bonding Licence. She allegedly threatened to cancel the licence if the bribe was not paid.
“The team of officers conspired and collected money as a syndicate,” an official said.
According to CBI sources, Bobbal had carried out an inspection in the firm’s office in May and allegedly sought Rs 15,000 as illegal gratification for issuing the licence.
The complainant paid Rs 5,000 in July and a licence was issued to him in August. The officers, however, recently started forcing the complainant to pay the remaining Rs 10,000 so he decided to approach the CBI.
On Tuesday, CBI sleuths arrested Vanaye while he was taking the money and acting on information provided by him, the CBI team searched Bobbal’s office where they found Rs 80,000 in a drawer.
CBI alleged the amount was one day’s bribes collected by them from different people.