Port trust officials nabbed taking Rs2.5-lakh bribe – in new Rs2,000 notes!
17 Nov 2016
Even as citizens struggled to withdraw money or exchange old currency notes of Rs1,000 and Rs500, the Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested two Kandla Port Trust officials accepting bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh, which was paid in new Rs2,000 notes, reported NDTV.
According to the report, a middleman for the two officials had accepted Rs2.5 lakh from a firm, which was a part of the bribe amount.
Gujarat's Anti-Corruption Bureau official told the channel, "Superintending Engineer P Srivivasu and Sub Divisional officer K Komtekar of the Kandla Port Trust had sought a bribe of Rs4.4 lakh for clearing the pending bills of a private electrical firm."
The ACB officials were stunned to see the whole amount being paid in the newly printed Rs2,000 notes. Officials had laid the trap to arrest the middleman after the electric firm owners approached them.
On 12 November, a senior assistant of Kolhapur Zilla in Maharashtra was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs35,000, which contained 17 newly introduced Rs2,000 currency notes.
Chandrakant Sawardekar was apprehended by the sleuths of Anti-Corruption Bureau while accepting the bribe from the complainant, who was due for promotion as principal in a zilla parishad-run school.
On 10 November, a government official in Maharashtra's Solapur district was arrested after he demanded bribes and insisted he be paid only in Rs100 notes and not in the demonetized Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes.