CBI arrests Mathura bank manager for demanding Rs 4 lakh bribe from loan seeker

New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) apprehended a UCO Bank Branch Head from Mathura for demanding a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from a loan applicant who was sanctioned an amount of Rs 1 crore, an official said on Monday.

The CBI registered the case against the Senior Manager, UCO Bank, Kotwali Road Branch, on September 1.

It was alleged by the complainant that his firm availed a loan of Rs 1 crore from UCO Bank; however, the firm was disbursed Rs 90 lakh out of the entire sanctioned amount of Rs 1 crore, and the remaining Rs 10 lakh was kept on hold by the Branch Head with mala fide intention to demand undue advantage from the complainant, said a statement.

It was further alleged that when the son of the complainant visited the Bank to get the remaining amount of Rs 10 lakh, the Branch Head demanded a bribe of Rs 4 lakh, with the rate of 4 per cent commission on the sanctioned loan of Rs 1 crore.

On receiving a complaint from the loan applicant, the CBI laid a trap and caught the accused red-handed, along with an accomplice, while demanding and accepting illegal gratification of Rs 2 lakh - as the first instalment of the Rs 4 lakh bribe.

In a separate case, the CBI last week arrested Rahul Vijay, a Senior Manager with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), on charges of embezzling public funds worth nearly Rs 232 crore.

The case was registered following a complaint from AAI, which alleged that Vijay, during his posting at Dehradun Airport, masterminded a systematic scheme of fraud by manipulating both official and electronic records.

The CBI investigated the case on the basis of the complaint of the AAI.

According to the CBI, between 2019-20 and 2022-23, the accused created duplicate and fictitious assets and inflated the value of existing ones - sometimes by simply adding zeros to the entries - to evade scrutiny.

Through these manipulations, about Rs 232 crore was allegedly diverted into his personal bank accounts.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Vijay subsequently transferred large portions of the misappropriated money into trading accounts, using them for speculative transactions and siphoning public funds for personal gain.

--IANS

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