Two officials of Kandla Port Trust (KPT) and a middleman were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths for allegedly accepting Rs 2.9 lakh as bribe, in newly introduced Rs 2,000 notes, from a private firm.

Ahmedabad: Two officials of Kandla Port Trust (KPT) and a middleman were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths for allegedly accepting Rs 2.9 lakh as bribe, in newly introduced Rs 2,000 notes, from a private firm.

Those arrested are Superintendent Engineer (class-1) P Shrinivasu, Sub Divisional Officer K Kumetkar and middleman Rudreshwar Sunamudi.

"Apart from clearing pending bills, which ran into over Rs 1 crore, these two officials sought illegal gratification for not serving a show cause notice to the contractor for not doing the work properly.

"Shrinivasu agreed to take Rs 2.5 lakh while Kumetkar agreed for Rs 1.5 lakh," police Inspector with Kutch ACB, HM Kansagara said.

The firm is engaged in maintenance of High Tension electrical lines as well as supplying various materials to the Port Trust.

On the complaint of the firm's owner, a trap was laid on Wednesday. On behalf of Shrinivasu, Sunamidu came to collect the share. Though we had also kept Rs 1.5 lakh ready for Kumetkar, he did not turn up. We arrested the middleman while taking Rs 2.5 lakh. Later, we arrested the two KPT officials," the ACB official said.

While searching Kumetkar's house, police found Rs 40,000 which he had accepted a few days back from the complainant as bribe, the official said.

"In total, Rs 4.4 lakh have been seized. The entire cash was in newly introduced Rs 2,000 notes," Kansagara said, adding, "Since the KPT officials wanted the bribe in new currency notes, the complainant sourced the cash from his bank accounts, relatives as well as friends."