Guwahati, July 24 (IANS) An assistant professor of the College of Agriculture, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, has been booked by the CBI for taking Rs 1.95 lakh bribe for favouring a particular supplier and conspiring to award contracts for the supply of goods at inflated rates, an official said.

Pavankumar Goudar was booked on Wednesday for criminal conspiracy, demand of bribe/undue advantage by a public servant and charges related to bribing a public servant by a commercial organisation and abetment, said a CBI official.

The CBI received a tip-off that the assistant professor had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Anand Kumar Dwivedi, proprietor of Matrix Solution, Pasighat, and unknown others, with a predetermined intention to cause wrongful loss to the college.

The CBI FIR said that Dwivedi had transferred a bribe/undue advantage of Rs 1.95 lakh in May 2025 to the predetermined bank account furnished by Goudar against showing favour in the award of a contract, supply of goods/items in the past.

The FIR noted that sources revealed that in the most recent irregularity, Goudar favourably awarded the contract of supply of 30 pieces of Milton buckets to Dwivedi at an inflated rate.

Dwivedi supplied the buckets on July 3. On July 15, Goudar conveyed to Dwivedi that, against the order for supply of 30 pieces at an inflated amount of Rs 75,000, the actual amount of the supplied goods was Rs 36,000 at the rate of Rs 1,200 per bucket and demanded the difference amount of Rs 39,000 bribe, the FIR said.

Goudar also demanded the residual bribe of Rs 24,000 that remained unpaid on earlier occasions from Dwivedi towards the supply of goods and items, it said.

Dwivedi agreed to pay a collective sum of Rs 55,000 as a bribe/undue advantage against the demanded amount of Rs 63,000, said the probe agency.

A source revealed to the CBI that on July 21, Goudar reminded Dwivedi about the commitment of payment of a bribe made by the latter and asked him to pay the said amount of Rs 55,000 by Wednesday.

After the source indicated that there was every likelihood that an exchange of bribes between Goudar and Dwivedi may take place on Wednesday at Pasighat, the CBI took up an investigation and registered an FIR.

A preliminary report mentioned in the FIR said, “A Regular case is registered u/s 61 (2) of BNS and u/s 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) against Goudar and Dwivedi and unknown others and investigation of the case is entrusted to CBl, ACB, Guwahati.”

–IANS

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