IOC official, 4 others face allegations of seeking bribes for allotments

The CBI has registered a case against a senior official of an oil marketing company and four others for allegedly seeking bribe to allot petrol pumps and kerosene dealerships. The investigating agency in a press release on Tuesday said its Guwahati office anti-corruption branch had registered a case on Sunday under Indian Penal Code section 120b (criminal conspiracy) and sections of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 against the five persons, including a woman.

The CBI said there were allegations against the accused of demanding and accepting illegal gratification habitually from different private businessmen, who own petrol pumps and kerosene oil dealerships. It named the Indian Oil Corporation - Assam Oil Division general manager(sales) Dibyajyoti Datta for his alleged "connivance with private conduits for showing them a favour in allotment of new retail outlets all over North Eastern states, including Assam", according to the release.

It said that as per information, Datta had demanded Rs five lakh from Lalchand Choudhary alias Lalaram of Auto Centre Agent of IOC at Jharnapani in Nagaland for selection/allotment of petroleum retail outlet at Tuli, the CBI said. The investigating agency claimed that Choudhary agreed to pay Rs 2 lakh as part payment, which was to be delivered through Bendangnaro Ao, an associate of Choudhary from Dimapur in Nagaland.

A CBI team caught Datta red-handed while accepting the bribe amount from Ao on February 11 at Guwahati, the statement mentioned. The investigating agency registered cases against Lalchand Choudhary, Ao, Laxmi Narayan Sogani alias Lichu Babu of Athgaon in Guwahati and Tony alias Ankeet of Hindustan Tyre Corporation in Guwahati.

(With inputs from agencies.)