New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a Deputy Director General at the Airworthiness Directorate of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) Headquarters in New Delhi along with a representative of a private company in a bribery case of Rs 2.5 lakh resulting in the seizure of the entire amount, an official said on Sunday.

“Mudavath Devula, Deputy Director General at the Airworthiness Directorate of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Headquarters in Delhi and Bharat Mathur, Senior Vice President of a private company, were arrested after the CBI registered the case on April 18 against Devula for demanding a bribe,” a statement said.

The CBI said the DGCA official demanded undue advantage from the private persons in lieu of issuing approvals and permissions of applications pending with DGCA.

Consequently, searches were conducted by CBI at premises of the accused public servant and other private persons at four locations in Delhi resulting in seizure of cash worth Rs 37 lakh, gold and silver coins, and multiple digital devices.

“Earlier, in a separate case the central probe agency caught three bank officials, including the chief manager, red-handed in Andhra Pradesh’s Eluru district while taking a bribe,” the statement added.

Those arrested for taking Rs 25,000 bribe included the chief manager, Clerk-cum-cashier and gold appraiser, all staff of the Indian Bank branch in Eluru.

According to a press statement by the investigative agency, the arrested staff were identified as Banavatu Nagu, Chief Manager; Annumalasetty N. Kumarm, Clerk-Cum-Cashier; and Krishna Prasad, Gold Appraiser.

They were caught and taken into custody on Saturday by the CBI officials, after they were found demanding and accepting Rs 25,000 bribe from the complainant.

The CBI registered the case after the accused complained that they were being arm-twisted and forced to pay Rs 25,000 for getting approval on the sanctioned Cash Credit limit.

The complainant, who runs an auto agency in Eluru, was sanctioned an Open Cash Credit limit of Rs 50 lakh by Indian Bank’s Narasimharaopeta Branch in Eluru for the smooth running of his day-to-day business, and he has been using the said limit as per his requirements.

According to the complaint, the victim had gone to Rajasthan for some work last month, during which he was contacted by bank officials, claiming that the auditor had come to the bank and raised some technical glitches, due to which the limit of his bank account would be reduced from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, or it would be turned Non Performing Asset.

When the complainant asked for reasons, the accused Chief Manager demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 to continue the smooth running of his aforesaid account.

After negotiation, the accused Chief Manager Banavatu Nagu agreed to accept a bribe of Rs 30,000.

–IANS

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