A Special CBI Court in Ghaziabad has sentenced the former manager of a gramin bank branch in Meerut to four years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs10,000 in a bribery case dating back a decade. Umesh Kumar Singhal, who was the Branch Manager at Sarva UP Gramin Bank, Branch- Machhra, Meerut, was found guilty of accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000 from a loan applicant. The case was registered by the CBI on April 28, 2016, following a complaint from the loan applicant.
The accused Branch Manager was alleged to have demanded a bribe of Rs 28,000 from the complainant in exchange for sanctioning and disbursing a loan of Rs 2.50 lakh to the Indira Joint Liability Group, which held an account in UP Gramin Bank, Machhra, Meerut. After negotiations, Singhal agreed to accept a bribe of Rs 25,000 from the complainant. The CBI conducted a sting operation and caught Singhal red-handed while accepting the bribe.
Following an investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet on June 24, 2016, against Singhal. Subsequently, the Special Court convicted and sentenced Singhal on Friday. In a separate incident, the CBI apprehended an Enforcement Officer of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) District Office in Patiala for accepting a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh from an individual under scrutiny.
The CBI initiated the case on July 22 against the Enforcement Officer of EPFO. The complainant’s client, an EPF consultant, was reportedly under investigation by the EPFO authorities under Section 7A of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. Despite the complainant submitting all necessary documents to the EPFO department, the accused threatened to file a negative report recommending substantial penalties against the client.
The accused Enforcement Officer then demanded a bribe of Rs 4 lakh during a meeting at the EPFO Regional Office in Chandigarh on July 21 for closing the inquiry against the client with minimal penalties. The CBI intervened on July 22 and apprehended the accused while soliciting and receiving a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh from the complainant.
