Ranchi, Nov 7 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) apprehended an official of Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) in Jharkhand while accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a man who was seeking a job on compassionate grounds, an official said on Friday.

Dipak Giri, Manager, Personnel-HR, Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), Dakra Project Office, had demanded the bribe from a job seeker who had applied under the provisions of giving employment on compassionate grounds, the official said in a statement.

The CBI registered the case on Thursday against Giri on receipt of a complaint alleging a demand for a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from the complainant for processing the request of his appointment on compassionate grounds.

The accused later agreed to accept an undue advantage of Rs 50,000 as the first instalment, the CBI said.

The probe agency laid a trap and caught the accused red-handed while demanding and accepting the first instalment of the bribe amounting to Rs 50,000 from the complainant.

Earlier, in a separate case in Uttar Pradesh, a Special CBI Court (West) in Lucknow convicted two retired State Bank of India officials and a Lucknow-based infrastructure firm in a 15-year-old fraud involving Rs 5.7 crore.

Retired deputy manager Subhash Chandra Aggarwal and former desk officer Joy Chakravarti, both posted at SBI’s main branch and local head office, were each sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 30,000.

The third convict, Addyapolo Projects Private Limited, faced a corporate penalty of Rs 10 lakh. The company’s director, Kranti Kumar Singh, who masterminded the scam, died during the trial.

The conspiracy began in 2009 when Singh, eyeing easy money for his cash-strapped firm, forged invoices and balance sheets to create three ghost supplier entities: Zassoda Global Marketing, RK Traders, and Sambhav Enterprises.

Armed with these papers, he persuaded Aggarwal and Chakravarti to sanction a term loan of Rs 5.7 crore ostensibly for machinery purchases.

Once the funds landed, Singh quietly diverted the money into his personal accounts.

–IANS

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