A joint team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the anti-corruption bureau in Lucknow arrested a postal department executive engineer on charges of accepting a bribe from a government contractor. The arrest was made for processing and releasing pending payments.
Case Registration
On Wednesday, a case was registered against Ashish Agarwal, executive engineer (civil) at the postal civil division in Prayagraj, under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The complaint alleged that Agarwal was demanding a bribe of Rs 3 lakh from a contractor who was executing civil works under the postal civil division in Kanpur Dehat, Varanasi, Akbarpur, Balrampur, and Prayagraj districts. The accused had asked the complainant to pay Rs 90,000 for processing and releasing pending bills amounting to approximately Rs 40 lakh.
Trap and Arrest
Acting on the complaint, the CBI verified the allegations and laid a trap on Thursday. The agency caught Agarwal red-handed while he was accepting Rs 1.5 lakh as part of the bribe demanded from the complainant. CBI officials took the accused into custody and initiated further legal proceedings.
Ongoing Investigation
Searches are being conducted at locations linked to the accused. The agency stated that further investigation is underway to ascertain the full extent of the alleged corruption and to determine whether any other officials were involved in the matter.
