CBI arrests customs officer for accepting bribe of ₹80,000
The CBI caught the accused, Kumar Saket, red handed on Tuesday, while allegedly taking the bribe sum of ₹80,000 in his office at Courier Cell, International Courier Terminal, Sahar, Andheri East. The agency also conducted a search at the residence of the senior customs official in Ulwe, Navi Mumbai
MUMBAI: The Mumbai unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a superintendent of customs for allegedly demanding and taking a bribe of ₹80,000 for clearing an import consignment.
The CBI caught the accused, Kumar Saket, red handed on Tuesday, while allegedly taking the bribe sum of ₹80,000 in his office at Courier Cell, International Courier Terminal, Sahar, Andheri East. The agency also conducted a search at the residence of the senior customs official, located at Ulwe in Navi Mumbai.
The agency had received a complaint on Tuesday from the businessman about Saket demanding ₹1 lakh to clear his Pune-based firm’s import consignment that had reached the Mumbai International Courier Terminal on July 6 via a courier.
After verifying the complaint discreetly in the presence of witnesses, CBI’s anti-corruption branch registered a case against the accused under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018), relating to demand of undue advantage by a public servant.
The complainant had alleged that when he met the accused for the clearance of his consignment, the latter told him to pay anti-dumping duty of ₹2.80 lakh for its release.
The accused then allegedly told the complainant that if he paid him half of the value of the anti-dumping duty which amounts to ₹1.4 lakh, his consignment would be cleared without having to pay the duty.
After the complainant expressed his inability to pay the sum, the accused reduced the amount to ₹1 lakh, and asked him to call him once he had arranged the money.
“A trap was laid on Tuesday and the accused was caught red handed while accepting the undue advantage of ₹80,000 from the complainant at his office. Thereafter, the accused was placed under formal arrest,” a CBI source said.
The accused was produced before a special court on Wednesday and remanded to CBI’s custody for three days to facilitate his custodial interrogation.
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