The CBI has arrested Joint Director General of Foreign Trade N Ramesh posted at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and two others in an alleged bribery case, officials said Wednesday.
Besides Ramesh, the other two arrested persons included Section Head Sreebhashyam Venkata Ranganathan in Regional Authority, DGFT Visakhapatnam, and Managing Director of Kireeti Indenting and Exim Services Private Limited P Sita Rama Raju, they said.
The CBI had swung into action after getting information that Ramesh and Ranganathan were allegedly demanding and collecting huge bribes for issuing new import and export certificates, renewals and other related licences through DGFT consultants and conduits.
It is alleged that Ramesh had taken Rs 4 lakh while Ranganathan received Rs 50,000 as bribe from Raju, the officials said.
All the accused were produced before a special court in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday which sent them to judicial custody, they said.
The office of the Regional Authority, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) promotes exports and imports. The DGFT also issues various licences — import-export certificate, export promotion of capital goods, and export obligation discharge certificate, among others to various firms in India, the CBI said in its FIR.
The CBI mounted surveillance which provided further information that Managing Director of Kireeti Indenting Raju had told Ranganathan that 18 files pertaining to Pattabhi Agro Foods Private Limited were cleared and seven more files are pending in JDGFT office in Visakhapatnam.
Raju allegedly told Ranganathan that he would be arriving in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday to handover the alleged bribe amount of Rs 4 lakh to Ramesh as demanded by him, for clearing the files pertaining to his client companies including Pattabhi Agro Foods Pvt. Ltd, Blue Sea Foods, and Sailaja Agro Foods.
The CBI also received information that Raju had directed his staff Sidhu to collect Rs 4 lakh from Managing Director of Jayaraj Fortune Packaging Pvt. Ltd SR Prasad Pendyala in Guntur and bring the amount to Visakhapatnam for paying Ramesh as bribe, the FIR alleged.
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