Chaos has gripped the entire country as people are trying to withdraw cash from ATMs and exchange old currency notes for new currency at banks. Gujarat's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday arrested two port trust officials for accepting a bribe of Rs 2.9 lakh, which was paid in new Rs 2,000 notes.
According to NDTV, the officials did not directly accept the bribe, but through their middlemen. "Superintending Engineer P Srivivasu and Sub-Divisional officer K Komtekar of the Kandla Port Trust had sought a bribe of Rs 4.4 lakh for clearing pending bills of a private electrical firm," an ACB official was quoted as saying by the channel.
The ACB officials were surprised to see the entire amount being paid with the new currency notes. The investigators were tipped off by the electric firm's owners. In addition, Rs 40,000 was also recovered from the home of one of the two arrested port trust employee, Business Today reported.
Other incidents
On November 12, a senior assistant of Kolhapur zilla parishad in Maharashtra was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 35,000. It contained 17 newly introduced Rs 2,000 currency notes.
On November 10, a government official in Maharashtra's Solapur district was also arrested on charges of demanding bribe to be paid only new currency notes, DNA reported.
