The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials arrested the manager of the main branch of IDBI Bank in Vijayawada on charge of accepting bribe. The accused is being produced before the Special Judge for CBI cases in Visakhapatnam.
Ramana Reddy was caught red-handed while he was accepting Rs. 1 lakh bribe from a complainant for not initiating possession proceedings under the SARFAESI Act, according to Superintendent of Police (CBI) R. Gopala Krishna Rao.
The complainant, a resident of Padmanabhapuram in Vijayawada, had purchased a cold storage from one P. Lakshmi Kumari in 2011. Ms. Kumari had set up the cold storage by availing a term loan of Rs. 3.50 crore from the main branch of IDBI Bank in Vijayawada in 2010. Hence, the loan was transferred in the name of the complainant.
In December 2013, the bank declared the loan as NPA following the complainant’s failure to pay instalments owing to loss in business.
The bank thereafter issued a demand notice under the SARFAESI Act for taking possession of the complainant’s properties.
The complainant paid an amount of Rs. 1.15 crore between January and June 2015. The bank, however, served a possession notice. The complainant later met the CGM of IDBI in Bengaluru and appealed to her to stop the SARFAESI proceedings. On the CGM’s instructions, he deposited another Rs. 19 lakh on June 9, 2015 in his loan accounts through RTGS. Thereafter, the complainant requested the bank authorities not to initiate possession proceedings.
The Manager allegedly sought Rs. 5 lakh as bribe from the complainant on June 9 to stop further proceedings and even threatened to initiate action under SARFAESI Act if the money was not paid. When the complainant expressed his inability to pay the bribe amount, the accused offered to take the amount in five equal instalments of Rs. 1 lakh each and sought payment of the first instalment on June 11.
The complainant filed a case with the CBI, Visakhapatnam, for initiating necessary legal action. The CBI laid a trap and caught Ramana Reddy red-handed while he was accepting the bribe.
