Lucknow, July 15: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested the Branch Manager and Credit Officer of Bank of Baroda’s Koireepur branch in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur district for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe from a loan beneficiary, an official statement said on Wednesday.

The arrested officials have been identified as Swarnim Srivastava, Branch Manager, and Pushpak Chaudhary, Credit Officer, both posted at the Bank of Baroda’s Koireepur branch.

According to the CBI, a case was registered on July 13 based on a complaint alleging that the accused officials had sought an undue advantage for the release of funds under a government-backed loan scheme.

The complainant had been sanctioned a Rs 5 lakh loan under the Chief Minister Yuva Udyami Yojana at the Koireepur branch. While the term loan component had already been disbursed, the overdraft facility sanctioned as part of the loan package was yet to be released.

The agency alleged that the Branch Manager and Credit Officer demanded a bribe of Rs 45,000 from the complainant in exchange for facilitating the disbursement of the overdraft component of the sanctioned loan.

Following verification of the complaint, the CBI laid a trap on July 14. During the operation, the agency caught the Credit Officer allegedly accepting Rs 35,000 from the complainant. The CBI claimed the money was accepted in conspiracy with and at the behest of the Branch Manager.

Subsequently, both officials were taken into custody and arrested by the agency.

The accused were produced before the competent court in Lucknow. Further investigation into the case is underway, the CBI said.

Earlier in the first week of this month, the CBI had arrested the Project Director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Shillong, and two private persons for demanding a bribe of Rs 12 lakh from the complainant to process his outstanding bill to the tune of Rs 13.38 crore.

The accused public servant had instructed the complainant to give part of the bribe amount to the tune of Rs 4 lakh, in advance.

Mumbai, July 15: A woman was brutally killed by her husband in a brutal attack near a traffic signal in the Oshiwara area of Andheri West in Maharashtra’s Mumbai, officials said on Wednesday.

According to the police, the accused assaulted his wife with a large stone before slitting her throat with a knife following a heated argument.

He fled the scene after the incident but was arrested by the police a few hours later.

The incident took place near a traffic signal located a short distance from the Oshiwara Police Station late on Tuesday. Police said a dispute broke out between the couple over an issue.

According to the preliminary investigation, the argument intensified, following which the accused allegedly picked up a large stone and attacked his wife. He then allegedly used a knife to slit her throat.

The woman collapsed at the spot and suffered severe bleeding as a result of the assault, officials said.

After receiving information about the incident, a team from the Oshiwara Police Station rushed to the scene and shifted the injured woman to Cooper Hospital for treatment.

Doctors at Cooper Hospital examined the woman and declared her dead.

The accused husband had fled from the spot in an apparent attempt to evade arrest. Police immediately launched a search operation, and the accused was traced and arrested within a few hours of the incident.

A case of murder has been registered against the accused under the relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Police said the accused is being interrogated to ascertain the exact motive behind the killing and to reconstruct the sequence of events leading up to the crime.

New Delhi, July 14: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested proclaimed offender Shibu Kumar Singh, one of the accused in the 2007 Sukanta Ghosh murder case, an official said.

He was arrested from his hideout at Raiganj Road in Gorakhpur’s South Gandhi Ashram, where he was living under the assumed name Akhilesh Kumar Shahi, the CBI official said in a statement.

The case was registered on the order of Calcutta High Court delivered on August 27, 2009.

After investigation, the CBI filed charge sheet and supplementary charge sheet on December 31, 2010, and November 14,2011, respectively, against Shibu Kumar Singh and three others, the statement said.

Absconding for several years, Shibu Kumar Singh was declared a proclaimed offender on September 15, 2016.

The accused was apprehended using human intelligence and technical inputs, the CBI said.

After obtaining a transit warrant, the accused will be taken to Kolkata for production before the competent court on Wednesday, the CBI added.

Barrackpore-based gold merchant Sukanta Ghosh was murdered on July 6, 2007.

The police found his body lying in a pool of blood with 18 stab wounds in Jawahar Kunja of Latbagan.

The police, after initial investigation, found that there was suspicion of the involvement of some goons allegedly working under the patronage of a Left legislator and his brothers.

The investigators found that the victim was murdered for refusing to pay protection or extortion money to the local mafia linked to the MLA.

During the investigation, the High Court had even directed the CBI to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the murder.

Justice Samapti Chatterjee had instructed the CBI to frame the SIT to reinvestigate the case that had initially been probed by the state police.

The High Court had directed that the SIT should be led by a CBI officer of the rank of Joint Director who would be responsible for providing updates to facilitate a court-monitored probe.