New Delhi, Aug 28: The CBI arrested an IRS officer serving as Additional Commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), another GST official and their accomplice in Raigad district of Maharashtra, in a Rs 40 lakh bribery case, an official said on Friday.

Vinay Kumar Kantheti, Additional Commissioner of GST (IRS-2009), Rakesh Kumar Sinha, Superintendent of GST, and private person Narinder Rajput were arrested on Thursday, the CBI official said in a statement.

The CBI registered the instant case on August 26 against the accused Superintendent of CGST on the allegations that he had demanded an undue advantage of Rs 1.50 crore for settling the GST/royalty matter relating to the stone-quarrying firm of the complainant.

After negotiation, the demand was subsequently reduced to Rs 40 lakh, the CBI said.

The accused public servants had arranged for collection of the bribe amount through Rajput and accordingly directed the complainant to contact the former.

The CBI laid a trap and caught the accused private person red-handed while accepting an undue advantage of Rs 40 lakh, said the statement.

The CBI said that the acceptance of the bribe amount was subsequently acknowledged by the accused Superintendent of CGST as well as the accused Additional Commissioner of CGST.

All three accused persons have been arrested and are being produced before the competent court.

Searches conducted at the premises of the accused resulted in the further recovery of cash amounting to Rs 43 lakh and jewellery worth Rs 90 lakh, the CBI said.

In a separate case earlier, the CBI on Thursday arrested Chief Engineer (Electrical) and Superintending Engineer (Electrical) of BSNL, Bhopal, in a Rs 75,000 bribery case.

The CBI registered the case on allegations that the accused Chief Engineer (Electrical) and Superintending Engineer (Electrical) posted at BSNL, Bhopal, demanded an undue advantage of Rs 2 lakh each for themselves and a co-accused from a Jabalpur-based firm which executed Operation & Comprehensive Maintenance (OCM) and electrical installation-related work for BSNL.

The CBI said the bribe amount was demanded to process pending bills of the firm for 14 different works.

The CBI laid a trap and caught both accused BSNL officers in Bhopal red-handed while accepting an undue advantage of Rs 75,000 each as part payment of the demanded bribe of Rs 2 lakh from each accused.

Searches were later conducted at the residential and office premises of the accused persons in Bhopal, Lucknow and Kanpur, the CBI said.

Gandhinagar, Aug 28: At least 23 people linked to Gujarat were listed as missing or uncontactable in the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) and district emergency centre records on Friday, following devastating flash floods near Nepal’s border with Tibet, with several of them travelling on the Kailash Mansarovar route through Kerung.

The list — as of 12:54 p.m. — includes Indian-origin citizens of the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as residents of Gujarat and people based overseas.

One person initially reported uncontactable, Roma Intwala of Valsad, has since been confirmed safe in Nepal, according to the state records.

Among those on the list are Ahmedabad residents Kinnari Patel and Mihir Patel, who travelled on August 23 with Richa Tours Pvt Ltd for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Kerung.

Their last contact was recorded at 4:51 a.m. on August 26, and both remained untraceable.

From Anand, Bimalkumar Patel and Jaimina Patel, who travelled on August 16 through Namaste Nepal Trekking and Research Hub, were also listed as not found. Both are described as US citizens of Indian origin.

Another case concerns Ashok Kapadi from Ahmedabad who was travelling with Samrat Tours and Travels for the Kailash Mansarovar route. He was last contacted at around 8:30 a.m. on August 26, when he was reportedly about to reach the China border immigration centre.

The list also includes Rajkot-based Jay Kotecha, whose case was reported missing at the SEOC, and so are Paresh Patel, Jyoti Patel and Minaxi Ramani, all linked to Surat.

Paresh and Jyoti, who reside in the US, were travelling with Hills & Trills Tour, Mumbai, and were last contacted around 8:10 a.m. on August 26.

Minaxi Ramani was also travelling on the Kailash Mansarovar route and is understood to reside in Mumbai. Dinesh Patel, an Amreli native and US citizen, was reported missing by a contact in Ahmedabad.

Umesh Patel, Akansha Patel and Ishan Patel, all linked to Kheda, were travelling from Delhi to Nepal by air. The records stated that no contact has been established with them after August 25.

Umesh and Akansha are Canadian citizens, while Ishan is an American citizen. Shilpa Patel, also linked to Kheda, was reported uncontactable by Mukti Patel.

She travelled on August 26 from Delhi to Nepal by flight and is listed as a US citizen. Her residence was given as Dhramaj in Anand district.

From Gandhinagar, Bhavinkumar Raval was reported missing while travelling with Kailash Journeys via Kyirong. His last contact was recorded at around 5 a.m. on August 27. He is an Australian citizen and is originally from Gandhinagar.

Three other Gandhinagar-linked cases involve Amita Amin, Tejal Patel and Jitendra Patel, all US citizens travelling for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Nepal Trekking Planner. Their last known location was recorded as the Bagmati area near the Friendship Bridge.

The state records also include Chauhan Babulal, also known as Gomtibapu, from Jafrabad in Amreli. According to the information provided to authorities, he left Jafrabad for Ayodhya on August 10 and was due to travel to Nepal with a group.

His phone was reportedly unreachable from August 11. His record mentions travel through Himalayan Glacier Adventure and Travel Company. Two further cases from Anand concern Padma Patel and Jagdish Patel, both linked to Jalundh in Khambhat taluka.

Jagdish had travelled on August 22 with Himalayan Glacier Adventure and Travel Company for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. The list also names Bina Parikh, who is based in Ahmedabad and has an overseas residence in Queens, New York.

She travelled on August 21 with Trekking Planner Travel Agency. Her family told authorities that no contact had been established since August 24.

Poonam Thakkar, who travelled on August 25 with Himalayan Glacier, was also reported uncontactable. She is recorded as holding US and Canadian citizenship.

The Valsad case involving Roma Intwala stands out from the others because authorities subsequently established that she was safe in Nepal. The state record says the Valsad Mamlatdar was informed of her safety.

The disaster struck the Rasuwa district near the Nepal-China border on Wednesday, with the Rasuwagadhi crossing and surrounding areas among the worst affected.

The route is a major overland gateway for private Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimages, with travellers moving from Kathmandu through Rasuwa and Timure before crossing into Tibet through the Gyirong, or Kerung, border.

The flash floods swept away roads, bridges and other infrastructure along the route, leaving large numbers of travellers cut off from communication.

The Indian government has been monitoring the situation through the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

The Centre said there was no need for panic and that reports of missing Indian tourists are being followed up by the MEA and the embassy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke to Nepal PM Balendra Shah and conveyed his condolences over the loss of lives in the floods.

New Delhi, Aug 28: Ex-mill sugar prices in India have declined by around 20 per cent, while retail sugar prices have also started coming down, and given the normal transmission of changes through the supply chain, retail prices are expected to follow the downward movement in prices shortly, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said on Friday.

The government has been closely monitoring sugar prices, stocks and movement across the country and has taken a series of proactive measures to ensure that the benefit of adequate availability reaches consumers. The downward trend in ex-mill and retail prices reflects that the sharp spike in prices witnessed recently was primarily on account of hoarding and speculation, although the country carries adequate stocks of sugar, the ministry statement said.

A nationwide drive for physical verification of sugar stocks at mills has reaffirmed the comfortable availability position. In several cases, sugar mills were found to be holding stocks higher than those declared in their monthly returns submitted to the government. The verification exercise has established that there is no shortage of sugar in the country and there is no justification for panic buying or excessive stocking, it said.

In some cases, sugar mills were also found to be resorting to “short selling”, which means selling less sugar than the quantity allocated to them under the monthly quota. Such practices tend to unnecessarily constrain market supplies despite adequate physical stocks, the statement said.

The government has also observed that, in certain cases, sugar sold by mills at the beginning of the month was being dispatched or lifted by buyers only towards the end of the month. This practice contributed to artificial scarcity in the market. To address such issues and ensure that sugar reaches the market in a timely manner, the government has decided to introduce a fortnightly sugar allocation system from September, replacing the existing monthly quota system. Under the fortnightly quota, mills will be required to sell at least 40 per cent of the allocation in the first week and the remaining quantity in the succeeding week.

Sugar mills have already been directed to ensure that sugar sold is dispatched from the mill within seven days of sale. The combination of fortnightly quota allocation and mandatory dispatch within seven days will significantly improve the movement of sugar through the supply chain. It will ensure that sugar moves quickly from mills to dealers and ultimately to consumers, while discouraging unnecessary accumulation and speculative holding of stocks. Bulk consumers of sugar have also been advised not to accumulate stocks in excess of their operational requirements.

Sugarcane crushing for the new season will also commence from October 15, and it is expected that more than 10 LMT of sugar will be produced during the month. The government has also permitted sugar mills to sell sugar produced during October without restriction, ensuring that new-season production becomes available in the domestic market at the earliest. Sugar production is expected to be around 45 LMT in November, providing substantial additional supplies for domestic consumption, the statement added.