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In Gujarat, Port Trust officials take bribe of nearly 3 lakh in Rs.2000 notes

by IBNS 17 Nov 2016, 09:57 am

Ahmedabad, Nov 17 (IBNS) : At a time when the people across the country are struggling with severe cash crunch following ban on high denomination currency, two port trust officials in Gujarat have been arrested for accepting a bribe of nearly three lakh rupees- all in Rs.2000 notes-floated by the Government less than a week ago.

According to a report by NDTV, one of the officers was caught red handed while accepting Rs. 2.5 lakh in cash, while another Rs. 40,000 was recovered from the home of one of them.

 
As part of the demonetisation move, which the Government says is aimed at ending black money holdings, a strict cash rationing has been promulgated in the country stipulating that an individual can withdraw cash from a single bank account in a week up to only Rs. 24,000.
 
The report said Superintending Engineer P Srivivasu and Sub Divisional officer K Komtekar of the Kandla Port Trust had sought a bribe of Rs. 4.4 lakh for clearing the pending bills of a private electrical firm, said officials of Gujarat's Anti-Corruption Bureau.

On November 15, a middleman of the two officials, Rudreshar, had accepted part of the amount, which was Rs. 2.5 lakh, from the firm which tipped off the police about the whole thing.

A trap was laid by the agency and the middleman had been arrested. 
 
Later, another Rs. 40,000 was recovered from the home of Srinivasu. 
 
Officials said he had confessed that he received the money earlier, which was the balance of the deal.