NEW DELHI: In a major operation against corruption, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has apprehended a senior auditor from the Office of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA), Ministry of Defence, along with two private individuals, for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 8 lakh. The arrests were made after a detailed investigation into allegations of bribery in the clearance of defence supplier payments.
According to officials, the accused had allegedly demanded Rs 10 lakh from a defence supplier as a bribe, in lieu of ensuring that his already cleared bills be made smooth, besides threatening to cause hindrance to future payments if the bribe is not paid. After much negotiation, the accused agreed to accept Rs 8 lakh as the first installment and required the complainant to hand over the money to a private defence supplier.
Acting on this information, the CBI arranged a trap and caught an employee of the accused supplier red-handed while accepting the bribe. Subsequently, the owner of the defence supplier firm was also taken into custody.
It was also found out that the identity of the public servant involved in the scam was Deep Narayan Yadav, a senior auditor at the office of PCDA, New Delhi; he was arrested later. Other persons caught in the case are Akash Kapoor, the proprietor of the Akash Polytechnic Pvt. Ltd., and his employee Dinesh. Officials recovered the incriminating evidence and are working on finding the entire network of bribery. The CBI has confirmed that further investigation is going on to trace any other links in the case.