Central Excise Officer Caught with Rs. 1.09 Crore Bribe
THIS bribe amount seems to be as large as the duty evaded in many cases. An officer of the DGCEI , in Pune was nabbed by the CBI red handed while accepting a bribe of over ONE CRORE rupees. THIS IS A RECORD!!! One Crore Rupees as bribe! Incidentally the bribe giver was also arrested - there was no complaint. It was CBI's intelligence vs Central Excise Intelligence. A steel rolling mill owner is said to have given the bribe apparently evading Central Excise Duty. When the Superintendent's house was searched, CBI found more than Rs. 6 Lakhs and about 800 Dollars in cash. Obviously One Crore bribe is not for a single officer - it should be shareable booty. In fact the CBI is said to have furnished to the Court a document containing the names of officers and their share in the bribe.
DDT's reports on corruption cases and how the officers who are caught red handed are finished for life, have been not appreciated by many departmental officers. We thought that these reports would have a preventive effect on other officers, but recently an officer told me that DDT's reports are being used for comparing figures and identifying posts – now there may be a big rush for deputation to DGCEI – after all the stakes are quite high. And the justification is, when everybody else is corrupt, what is wrong with ours? The name of the game is – “don't get caught”.