CBI arrests postal dept engr taking ₹1.5L bribe

Lucknow: Joint team of CBI and anti-corruption bureau, Lucknow, arrested a postal department executive engineer accepting bribe from a govt contractor for processing and releasing pending payments. A case was registered on Wednesday against Ashish Agarwal, executive engineer (civil), postal civil division, Prayagraj, under Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, following complaint that Agarwal was demanding Rs 3 lakh from a contractor executing civil work under postal civil division in Kanpur Dehat, Varanasi, Akbarpur, Balrampur and Prayagraj districts. The accused asked the complainant to pay Rs 90,000 for processing and releasing pending bills amounting to approximately Rs 40 lakh.

Acting on the complaint, CBI verified allegations and laid a trap on Thursday. The agency caught Agarwal red-handed 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. Search is being conducted at locations linked to the accused.

The agency said further investigation is underway to ascertain the full extent of the alleged corruption and whether any other officials were involved in the matter.