Official, woman caught red handed by CBI

CHENNAI: The sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation laid a trap and caught an official at the office of the Registrar of Companies for accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 on Tuesday. They also arrested a woman, who had accepted the money on behalf of the official for registration of an NGO.Kotteeswaran, a junior technical assistant at the office of the Registrar of Companies and Jayarani, an employee of a private consultant company, were arrested by the officials of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the CBI. CBI officials said the complainant, who was running an NGO, wanted to get it registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act. The complainant had visited the Office of the Registrar of Companies located at Shastri Bhavan in the city where he had reportedly met Kotteeswaran. Kotteeswaran told the complainant that the process of registering his NGO was cumbersome and that he would help him do it. He then took the complainant to a firm where Jayarani was working.CBI officials said that after completing certain formalities relating to the registration, the complainant was asked to pay `21,200 for completing the registration process. On Friday, Kotteeswaran demanded a bribe of `10,000 to be paid before Monday and said that his case could be taken up only after that. The complainant then lodged a complaint with the CBI and based on that, the ACB laid a trap and arrested the duo. Both the accused were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by the principal special judge for CBI cases.