Tainted bureaucrats arrested

While Joint Secretary of the Ministry O Ravi was arrested and handed over to CBI till May  3 for an alleged Rs 25 Lakh bribery and Rs 340 crore excise duty scam, the courts also allowed CBI to quiz another official, Radhey Shyam Sharma, for allegedly accepting Rs 10 lakh bribe in purchase of bullet-proof jackets for Central police forces.

Ravi, a 1983 batch IAS officer, allegedly took a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to get the Daman administrator  transferred from the union territory. 

In the same case, CBI also arrested owner of Royal Distilleries Ashok Khemani, middle-man Rakesh Rastogi and three excise officials for involvement in the alleged excise scam.
Khemani was arrested from a hotel here while others were picked up at Daman.

A case under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against Ravi, two excise inspectors Ramesh Mahyavanshi and Vijay Halpati and sub-inspector Suresh Dhodi.

The directors of six distilleries Royal, Jupiter, Krimpy, Silver Star and Dharmesh and some unidentified persons were also booked for alleged fraud.