New Delhi: The CBI has arrested a Deputy Commissioner of Customs and his two associates along with others for allegedly taking bribe for granting customs clearance to an import consignment.

An official said that the CBI has arrested Inland Container Depot (ICD-Tughlakabad) Deputy Commissioner Om Prakash Bisht, Superintendent Amit Kumar, Class IV employee Bijendra Kumar, Custom House Agent Ashok Yadav and his employee Ravikant Mishra.

The CBI has registered a case against seven people. The FIR is based on the allegations that Customs officials were taking bribe from Ashok Yadav to reduce the penalty on Mumbai-based company Radha Marketing.

CBI laid a trap

According to the official, the arrested accused were in regular contact with each other for granting customs clearance to consignments and were accepting bribes from various private parties. He said that Bijendra Kumar used to receive the bribe amount in his bank account and then transfer it to Bisht.

Officials said the CBI laid a trap and arrested Bisht, Bijendra and Ashok Yadav while accepting a bribe of Rs 72,000 to reduce the penalty on Radha Marketing. The CBI also arrested superintendent Amit Kumar who had earlier accepted a bribe of Rs 50,000.

Searches were conducted at nine places related to the accused

The spokesperson said searches were conducted at nine locations belonging to the accused in Delhi, Mumbai, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Raigarh and Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh). Incriminating documents and Rs 19.25 lakh were recovered from there.