Andhra govt leaked information, didn’t let us set trap alleges CBI

New Delhi, Dec 1: The Central Bureau of Investigation has alleged that the Andhra Pradesh government did not allow it to lay a trap against a central government official who was seeking a bribe.

A statement issued late on Friday said that rather than giving consent to lay the trap, the state government leaked information to its Anti Corruption Bureau, which acted on the complaint and laid the trap against the same government official. Such an attitude will hurt the fight against corruption, the CBI also said.

This allegation by the agency comes in the backdrop of the November 8 decision by the Andhra Pradesh government, which had withdrawn consent given to the CBI to act against central government employees working under the jurisdiction of the state government.

The CBI said that its Visakhapatanam unit had received a written complaint by a resident of Machilipatanam on November 28 alleging that a officer posted in the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs was seeking a bribe of Rs 35,000 allegedly for not raising objections in the CGST returns filed by the complainant's firm.

The SP of CBI immediately wrote a top secret letter to the principal secretary (home) and sent it by hand through a DSP rank officer of the agency.

In the letter, it was requested to issue specific consent to CBI to lay a trap in this particular complaint. It was also requested to keep the information strictly confidential and not to share the information with any other party.

The SP also personally called on principal secretary at her office at Velagapudy on November 29, and requested early action in issuing the specific consent, required under section 6 of DSPE Act to enable the CBI to register the case and lay the trap given Andhra government's withdrawal of general consent.

Further another letter was sent to the principal secretary with a copy to the chief secretary seeking immediate issuance of consent. The government however did not accede to the CBI request, the statement added.

Instead the details were shared by the home department with state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and state ACB laid a trap on the November 30 evening against the above central government public servant by using the contents of the above request letter.

Further, state ACB also issued a press release as if the complainant has directly approached them, the CBI also said in its statement.