Bhubaneswar, March 14 – A Special CBI Court in Bhubaneswar has convicted and sentenced a former Assistant Superintendent of Post Offices from Baripada, Odisha's Mayurbhanj district, to four years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 1 lakh for demanding a bribe of Rs 2 lakh, an official said on Saturday.
Radha Krushna Sahoo, the then Assistant Superintendent of Post Offices in charge of the Central Sub-Division of Baripada, was punished by the court on Friday, the official said in a statement.
The CBI registered the case against Sahoo on February 4, 2014.
The case alleged that Sahoo demanded a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from the complainant to facilitate his appointment as a Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS), Mail Deliverer/ABPM, and Mail Carrier in the Debsole branch post office.
According to the CBI, Sahoo demanded Rs 50,000 (out of the total bribe demand of Rs 2 lakh) on February 3, 2014, and agreed to accept the money in two installments – Rs 20,000 – at his rented residence in Baliganja on February 6, 2014, after the complainant expressed his inability to pay the full amount.
The CBI then laid a trap and caught Sahoo red-handed while he was demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from the complainant, the official statement said.
Following the investigation, the CBI filed the chargesheet against Sahoo on June 25, 2014, and the trial continued for 12 years before the agency secured a four-year jail term for the convict.
In a separate case, the CBI arrested Abhisek Sen Gupta, Assistant Manager-cum-Loan Officer of the State Bank of India's (SBI) Gumi branch in Assam's Kamrup (Rural) district, for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 16,000 from a complainant, a statement said on Friday.
The case was registered on March 12 following a complaint that the accused officer had demanded an undue advantage of Rs 16,000 for processing loan applications of customers seeking financial assistance for rooftop solar electrification installations.
The CBI laid a trap after verifying the allegations and caught Gupta red-handed while he was demanding and accepting the bribe from the complainant, the statement said.