Man caught taking Rs 20 lakh bribe on behalf of Excise Comm

Ahmedabad, Jul 2 (UNI) CBI sleuths have arrested an aide of Additional Central Excise Commissioner of Rajkot for accepting Rs 20 lakh bribe as part payment of Rs 70 lakh.

The accused Deepak Rawal, a conduit of the excise commissioner Ashok Maira, was arrested last night, said Rahul Sharma, DIG of CBI.

A month and half ago an electric bike manufacturing company was said to have evaded excise duties to the tune of Rs 6.5 crore.

Mr Maira had then demanded a bribe of Rs 2 crores to settle the matter. Finally they settled for Rs 70 lakh as bribe. And as a first installment, Rs 20 lakh was to be paid to Mr Maira. He then asked the money to be delivered at his Ahmedabad-based friend Rawal's house.

''We have verified the connection between Mr Maira and Rawal and the latter was acting on instructions from Mr Maira,'' Mr Sharma added.

UNI