TRAI officer nabbed for taking bribe from cable operators

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a senior research officer of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 1 lakh from Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur-based cable operators, the agency said Friday.

According to an official, the federal probe agency registered a case on the first day of this year on the complaint of a cable operator who alleged that the accused TRAI officer is demanding bribe of Rs 1 Lakh.

“The complainant is a licence holder of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting for running cable services in Sirmaur district of Himachal,” the officer said.

The complainant lodged the complaint on behalf of other five licence holder cable operators against the alleged officer for showing favour in assessing the regulatory documents i.e. Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports already submitted and those to be submitted in future by the said cable operators of Himachal Pradesh and for not to recommend cancellation of their licenses to Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt of India.

It was alleged that as per the TRAI guidelines the said cable operators are required to submit their Quarterly Performance Monitoring to the accused officer who after assessment or perusal, accepts or recommends cancellation of their licenses if some discrepancies are found.

As per the FIR, the accused TRAI officer told his victims that he would take favourable action and recommendations in respect of Q-PMRs already submitted or to be submitted in future by the complainant and five other cable operators.

“He has also threatened the other cable operators for cancellation of licences and asked them to contact the complainant in this regard,” an excerpt from the FIR read.

Accordingly, the CBI registered a case under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and verified the complaint. After verification, the agency laid a trap and caught the accused red handed while demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh in his Delhi office at Naroji Nagar, New Delhi.

The CBI also conducted searches at residential and official premises of the accused at Greater Noida and New Delhi which led to recovery of incriminating documents. Further investigation is continuing, the officer added.