Central excise officer among two held in a bribery case

The CBI has arrested a Superintendent of Central Excise posted here for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 10 lakh for favouring a company.

Representative of the company, who is the bribe giver in the case, has also been arrested, the agency said.

"CBI Hyderabad unit registered a case yesterday against S Gopala Krishna Murthy, Superintendent of Central Excise, Anti-Evasion, Hyderabad-II Commissionerate, Kendriya Shulk Bhavan, and unknown others on receipt of reliable information about demand and acceptance of illegal gratification of Rs 10 lakh for showing undue official favour after conducting inspection at M/s KM Plastics at Katedan here," an official release said today.
 

Murthy had made a demand amount of Rs 10 lakh from representative of the company to cover up the irregularities found during the visit of the factory premises by the Anti Evasion Team on March 1, the CBI said.

"Out of Rs 10 lakh, the first instalment of Rs 6 lakh was delivered yesterday morning and the second instalment of Rs 4 lakhs was to be delivered in the afternoon to the accused," it said.

"The accused was caught red handed while accepting this second instalment of Rs 4 lakh. Immediately both the bribe giver and the bribe taker have been arrested and thoroughly interrogated, it said.

"Searches were conducted at the residential premises of the accused and the Office of the Anti Evasion Unit, Central Excise here. During these searches, an amount of Rs. 5.6 lakh was recovered along with several other incriminating documents," the release added.

Both the arrested accused are being produced before court of the Special Judge for CBI cases here. The case is under active investigation.