The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two senior officers, including an Indian Telecommunication Service (ITS) officer from the Department of Telecom (DOT), posted in Pune, on the bribery charges of Rs one lakh in lieu of withholding inspection reports of a private company, the agency said on Wednesday.
The CBI has identified the arrested officials as Naresh Badawath, an ITS officer posted as Assistant Divisional Engineer Telecom at the office of the Advisor, Maharashtra Licensed Service Area (MH LSA) of Department of Telecom of the Ministry of Communications, and Jaykumar Thorat, Director (Technology-II), who was posted at the same office.
“A case was registered after it was alleged that the Assistant Divisional Engineer Telecom demanded undue advantage of Rs three lakh from the complainant for not sending inspection queries report and to avoid the adverse action of DOT for the queries found during the inspection of the complainant’s company. Later, the amount was settled at Rs two lakh and the first installment of Rs one lakh was to be delivered,” CBI said in a press statement.
“A trap was laid by the CBI. The Assistant Divisional Engineer accepted the bribe of Rs one lakh from the complainant and called the Director (Technology-II) for sharing the bribe amount with him. Both the accused were intercepted and caught by the CBI,” the statement added. Officials said that the arrests were made late on Monday night.
The officials said that searches were conducted at the residential and office premises of both the accused at Pune which led to recovery of incriminating documents. A cash amount of Rs 5.67 lakh was recovered from the residence of Assistant Divisional Engineer Telecom.
Both the arrested accused were produced in the Court of Special Judge for CBI cases in Pune and were remanded to CBI custody till September 22.
