Currency ban: Corruption prevails as new ₹2000 notes used to pay bribe in lakhs
- ₹2.9 lakhs was paid as bribery in ₹2000 notes in Gujarat.
- ACB has arrested the accused.
- Another incident reported bribery using new ₹2000 notes.
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Even before the new ₹2000 notes could hit the market all across the country, it seems the demonetisation move has failed to carve out corruption as two port trust officials have allegedly accepted ₹2.9 lakh bribery in all new ₹2000 currency notes in Gujarat.
According to reports in NDTV, an official of Gujarat's Anti-Corruption Bureau disclosed that Superintending Engineer P Srivivasu and Sub-Divisional officer K Komtekar of the Kandla Port Trust asked for a bribe of ₹4.4 lakh to clear pending bills of some private electrical firm and the recovered ₹2.9 lakh was collected in ₹2000 notes by a middleman.
The owners of the electrical firm tipped off the ACB who set a trap to arrest the accused officials and their middleman. Currently, the agency is investigating on how the money was obtained in ₹2000 notes.
Interestingly, due to strict rationing on the circulation of new currency notes, an individual can only withdraw ₹24,000 from a single bank account in a week.
In another separate incident, Madya Pradesh State Education Board's three employees have been arrested for taking a bribe of ₹25,000 that includes five ₹2000 notes given by a clerk, reported the Indian Express.
As per the report, the three officials asked for three lakh rupees but settled for one lakh rupees and the ₹25,000 was the first instalment as agreed upon by both the parties.
This bribe was accepted in the office of the accused who have been released on bail, later.
