NEW DELHI: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested four people, including a plant protection officer of the agriculture ministry and recovered Rs 1.86 crores during searches in an alleged bribery case, the agency said on Saturday.
Along with Padam Singh, a plant protection officer in the directorate of plant protection, currently posted in Visakhapatnam, the agency also arrested Athi Bulli Reddiyya aka Murali, regional manager of Exim Logistics Pvt Ltd; S Siva Rama Gupta, a resident of Visakhapatnam; Myla Srikrishna Varma, proprietor of Quality Fumigation and Pest Control Services.
The agency also conducted searches at the premises of the accused and their associates in Visakhapatnam and Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh and Roorkee in Uttarakhand. It recovered Rs 1.29 crores in cash from the premises of Singh and Rs 56.86 lakh allegedly belonging to him from the premises of others, CBI spokesperson RC Joshi.
He said that certain incriminating documents were also recovered during the searches.
The CBI has registered a case against Singh and Reddiyya. The agency, in the FIR, said that Singh was demanding and collecting huge amounts of bribes from the CHAs, fumigators and shipping agents for issuing phytosanitary certificates for exporting the goods and consignment release orders for imported consignments.
It has also been alleged that Singh demanded illegal gratification from Rediyya for clearing pending applications and issuing favourable certificates to customs for the release of import/export consignments of agricultural commodities.
“CBI apprehended Singh and Rediyya and recovered the bribe amount of Rs 6000,” the official said.