Central excise officials arrested on bribery charge

CBI has arrested a Superintendent and Inspector of Central excise office at Purulia in West Bengal along with a conduit for allegedly accepting bribe from a person.
Those arrested were identified as Shashank Kumar Das and Inspector Ramesh Yadav and Choubey, who allegedly acted as a conduit.
According to CBI, the officials were allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 18,000 from the person who was planning to start a Bidi Manufacturing Unit at Purulia for issuing a registration certificate to it.
"The accused Inspector and the private person (conduit) had actively abetted the said demand of illegal gratification by the Superintendent of Central Excise," the CBI alleged.

The amount of bribe was reduced from Rs 18,000 to Rs 15,000 by the Superintendent subsequently, it said.
CBI laid a trap and caught all the three while allegedly accepting the bribe.
They were produced before a designated CBI judge who remanded the Superintendent and the conduit in judicial custody till June 4 while the Inspector was released on bail on medical grounds.