CBI arrests Superintendent of Customs in UP for taking bribe

Lucknow, Dec 8 A team from Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Lucknow unit has arrested customs superintendent Pramod Kumar Tiwari for accepting bribe from a businessman in Siddharth Nagar.

The officer has also been suspended, and a departmental inquiry initiated against him.

The complainant Mohammad Islam runs a poultry business and his three trucks used to pass through Kakrahwa Border in Siddharth Nagar where Pramod was in charge.

Islam claimed that Pramod demanded Rs 5,000 per month per vehicle for smooth functioning of Mohammad Islam’s business.

Sources said Islam had initially lodged a complaint with the local police authorities, and they directed him to report the matter to CBI in Lucknow.

Soon after he informed the CBI, an inspector rank officer contacted him.

“Islam was asked to keep in contact with Pramod and fix an opportune time for giving him the bribe for the passage of trucks,” said an official.

On Thursday, when Islam handed over the bribe to Pramod at his office in Kakrahwa in Siddharth Nagar, the CBI team present there, caught him red-handed.

CBI teams also carried out searches at his premises, the sources added.

Sources further said a departmental probe was already underway against Pramod in a case of seeking Rs 1 lakh from a trader in Gorakhpur.

Pramod had joined the department as an inspector and went on to become superintendent of customs.

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