The special CBI court on Wednesday convicted a former Superintendent of Customs and the head havaldar at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), and sentenced them to four years of imprisonment.
They were caught red-handed accepting ₹50,000 from a businessman for a favour. The court also slapped a fine of ₹30,000 and ₹15,000 on the duo, respectively.
The case dates back to 2015. The convicted official Srinivas Prasad, in December 2015, caught a businessman, Srikumar, with 15 laptops when he arrived at KIA from Singapore.
The official demanded ₹1 lakh to release the goods, but after negotiations the amount was brought down to ₹50,000. He and head havaldar Lour Prabhu confiscated Srikumar’s travel documents and let him go to get the money.
Srikumar recorded the conversation on his phone and lodged a complaint with the CBI. Based on his complaint, the CBI laid a trap and arrested Prabhu who had come to collect the bribe at a hotel in Kammanahalli. The CBI officials filed a charge sheet based on which the court convicted the duo.
