CBI officer accused in Rs 20 lakh bribery case

MUMBAI: Delhi-based Central Bureau of Investigation’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) booked its deputy superintendent of police, A Bhaskar, accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a customs official instead of giving him favourable treatment in an ongoing corruption investigation.

Following a complaint from Rajesh Pandey, deputy superintendent of CBI ACB Mumbai, authorities registered the case on January 10. The allegations arise from an earlier investigation initiated in March 2023, which was based on a report by a CBI inspector accusing customs officers and clearing agents of facilitating duty-free clearance of goods using the passports of individuals who had resided abroad for extended periods.

It was alleged that the accused customs officials ran a network that allowed for the clearance of dutiable goods without the payment of the necessary customs duties. The investigation, which had been led by Bhaskar, took an unexpected turn when he was found to have allegedly accepted a bribe to manipulate the proceedings in favour of the accused officers.

Among the accused are Customs Preventive Officer Roshan Kumar, Assistant Commissioner Yogesh Kumar, and a private person, Vijay Mawara, who has been accused of masterminding and implementing the bribery scam.

This is the second such incident in recent weeks where a CBI deputy superintendent in Mumbai has been caught in a corruption case. Earlier, DSP BM Meena, who had worked with the banking securities fraud branch, was accused of demanding and receiving bribes through middlemen and hawala transactions to extend undue benefits to individuals under probe for bank frauds.