Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has nabbed an official of a coal-mining public sector unit, Western Coalfields Limited, in Nagpur for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe from a transporter in lieu of allowing the latter to lift a coal stock bought by another firm in an e-auction.
The official had demanded a bribe of Rs 3.19 lakh, at the rate of Rs 70 per metric tonne of coal, the CBI officials said. The agency had received a written complaint on January 31 from an official of a transport firm saying that another firm had purchased 8,200 metric tonne coal through e-auction and had authorised the former to lift the coal stock from Wani before January 11, 2023. The transport firm could only lift only 4,623 metric tonne till January 11.
“When the complainant visited the sub-area manager’s office on January 31, to get a new delivery order for the 2, 500 metric tonne, the sub-area manager did not issue the new delivery order and demanded a bribe of Rs3.23 lakh, at the rate of Rs 70 per metric tonne in respect of the 4,623 metric tonne coal that was already lifted,” a CBI official said. “The sub-area manager finally agreed to accept the bribe amount of Rs3.19 lakh but on the request of the complainant,” he said.
Later, the erring official allegedly agreed to accept Rs1 lakh as the first instalment out of the total bribe sum on January 3, the agency official said.
