Senior TRAI officer arrested for bribery

The CBI has arrested a senior TRAI officer for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a cable operator in Himachal Pradesh to favour him in compliance matters, officials said on Friday. The agency booked Narender Singh Rawat, a senior research officer of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on allegations that he demanded the bribe from a licence holder of the Union information and broadcasting ministry for running cable services in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur, they said.

He also allegedly asked the operator to pay a bribe on behalf of other five licence-holder cable operators in the state for favour in assessing regulatory documents such as quarterly performance reports.

The purpose of the bribe was to not recommend cancellation of their licenses to the ministry, the agency said.

“It is also alleged that, as per TRAI guidelines, the said cable operators are required to submit their quarterly performance monitoring to the said accused who, after assessment or perusal, accepts or recommends cancellation of their licences if some discrepancies are found,” a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson said in a statement.

After preliminary verifications, the CBI laid a trap and caught Rawat red handed while accepting the bribe of Rs 1 lakh in his Delhi office from the complainant, the CBI said.

The agency conducted searches at residential and official premises of the accused in Greater Noida and New Delhi, it said.