New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) The CBI on Wednesday arrested two officials of the Military Engineering Services (MES) in Jabalpur for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 3.10 lakh from a contractor assigned furniture work, officials said.

The accused officials Sujeet Baitha, Barrack Store Officer and Jaydeep Shukla, store keeper both posted at Office of Garrison Engineer (West), MES, Jabalpur audaciously asked the contractor to pay them Rs One lakh in cash and remaining through a blank cheque which they would encash later, the CBI alleged.

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The CBI acted on a complaint of the contractor who had approached the agency after the demand was placed before him for clearing his bills.

"It was also alleged that the complainant was awarded contract of furniture repairing and the work was completed. The accused allegedly demanded the said bribe for passing the bills of complainant," CBI Spokesperson RK Gaur said here.

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When the contractor told the accused officials that he could arrange only Rs one lakh, they asked him to give a cheque for the rest of the bribe amount.

After getting the information and verification, the CBI laid a trap and asked the complainant to go to them as a team waited outside, ready to nab the accused in the act of bribery, the officials said.

Baitha, the Barrack Store Officer accepted Rs one lakh cash from the complainant while Shukla, the Store Keeper, accepted the blank signed cheque and thereafter entered the amount of Rs. 2.10 lakh, found the team that raided the premises. 

"Both the accused were caught and the cash of Rs. 1,00,000/- was recovered from the Barrack Store Officer & the cheque was recovered from the Store Keeper. Searches were conducted at the premises of both the accused at Jabalpur which led to recovery of cash of Rs.1.55 lakh (approx) and other investment documents," Gaur said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)