5 Central Excise officials booked after CBI raid

A CBI statement said that the raids, which began on Tuesday evening, continued till Wednesday. It said the anti-corruption unit of the CBI registered a case against Janaki Arunkumar, Principal Chief Commissioner of Central Excise, Chennai Zone, and four Superintendents of Central Excise — Paul Sudhakar, Manoharan, Dhanasekaran and Selvaraj. The allegation against the accused is that they demanded illegal gratification of Rs one lakh per person for making favourable transfer postings of some of the officers of Central Excise.  

Further, Paul Sudhakar got appointment of Janaki Arunkumar for delivering Rs two lakh at her house at Palavakkam on Tuesday evening. He was accompanied by other accused persons.  Searches were conducted at seven places in the city, including residential and official premises of the accused which led to recovery of a total of 34 incriminating documents. During the course of searches, the bribe amount of Rs two lakh, besides an amount of Rs 2.65 lakh and a locker key were seized.   Further, cash to the of Rs 7.93 lakh was identified and four bank accounts have been frozen.  Other investments and gold ornaments were being identified.