Hyderabad: One arrested for giving bribe
Company owner was held while paying second instalment.
Hyderabad: In an interesting development, the Central Bureau of Investigation, on Wednesday, arrested both the bribe giver and bribe taker.
The CBI arrested customs and central excise superintendent Singam Gopala Krishna Murthy, who demanded a bribe of Rs 10 lakh to cover up tax evasion of a company named KM Plastics at Katedan.
The bribe giver, Jagadish Prasad, was also arrested as he was paying the second instalment of the bribe. Mr Gopala Krishna works in the Anti-Evasion wing of Hyderabad-2 commissionerate at Kendriya Shulk Bhavan Basheerbagh.
CBI sources said that they received reliable information that Mr Gopala Krishna was indulging in corrupt practices and collecting illegal gratification regularly from the owners of firms.
“Gopala Krishna and his Anti-Evasion team visited the premises of KM Plastics on March 1, conducted an inspection and Mr Gopala Krishna demanded Rs 10 lakh bribe from Jagadish Prasad of KM Plastics for showing undue favour to him.
The first instalment of Rs 6 lakh was paid on the morning of March 7 and the second instalment was to be delivered in the afternoon.
Gopala Krishna was caught red-handed accepting Rs 4 lakh second instalment of the bribe. Immediately both bribe giver and briber taker were arrested,” said a CBI source.
Searches were conducted at the residence of the accused and office of the Anti-Evasion unit and Rs 5.6 lakh were recovered along with some documents. The search also revealed that the accused official is constructing a new house and his wife owns a company.