CBI arrests bank executive for bribery

MADURAI: A branch manager of a nationalised bank was on Friday arrested by the CBI in Pudukottai district for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe to sanction an educational loan. The case is a telling example of the vicious red tape in which aspiring engineers and doctors in our country are caught waiting for the elusive education loan to fund their professional education. It also proves wrong claims of successive Union Finance Ministers that loans for pursuing higher education are available for the asking. According to CBI officers, Joseph Raj, the manager of the Kalakottai branch of the Central Bank of India in Pudukottai, was caught red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from an engineering college student Pandiselvi for sanctioning an education loan of  Rs 30,000. Sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Wing of the CBI arrested him.  The accused was produced before a magistrate who remanded him in judicial custody for 12 days. Thereafter, Raj was escorted to Madurai and lodged in the Central Prison here.