Ex-excise official gets 5 years’ jail time in bribery case

He has been convicted of demanding a ₹10-crore bribe and accepting ₹1.25 crore in 2017 from a hotelier, and sentenced him to five years’ rigorous imprisonment. A fine of ₹1 lakh has also been imposed

MUMBAI: A special CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) court on Thursday convicted former assistant commissioner of Central Excise, Ashok Venkatesh Nayak, for demanding a ₹10-crore bribe and accepting ₹1.25 crore in 2017 from a hotelier, and sentenced him to five years’ rigorous imprisonment. A fine of ₹1 lakh has also been imposed.

Arrested computer hacker and cyber criminal with handcuffs, close up of hands (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Delivering the judgment, Special CBI Judge Amit V Kharkar found Nayak guilty under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, holding that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt, both demand and acceptance of illegal gratification.

According to the court, the complainant had received threatening calls from a man identifying himself as an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer, directing him to meet Nayak at a Dadar hotel. The judgment records that Nayak had initially demanded ₹15 crore, later reducing it to ₹12 crore and then agreeing to accept ₹10 crore, of which ₹1.25 crore was to be handed over the next day.

During verification of the demand, investigators recorded conversations in which Nayak is “heard demanding gratification… and threatening the complainant with arrest and interrogation if he fails to meet with the demand”. He is also heard claiming he had “fixed the matter through a senior IAS officer working with the PMO” and promising favourable outcomes in related proceedings.

On May 6, 2017, CBI officers laid a trap near the Dadar hotel, after the complainant managed to arrange ₹13.5 lakh in actual currency, filling the rest of the carton with paper cut to the size of bank notes. The judgment notes that Nayak asked the complainant to place the carton containing cash in his car and “felt the carton with both hands to check whether it contained cash”, following which he was immediately apprehended.

His hand-wash turned pink in a sodium carbonate solution, confirming contact with phenolphthalein-coated notes. Minutes later, another accused, Dhananjay Ramanna Shetty, whom Nayak had phoned, arrived in a taxi to collect the cash and was also caught. Proceedings against him later abated following his death in July 2025.

Judge Kharkar observed that the prosecution’s evidence — including recordings, voice identification by an officer familiar with Nayak’s voice, corroborative testimony from panch witnesses and the complainant, and the trap procedure — had “remained unshattered”. He rejected the contention of the defence that no work of the complainant was pending with Nayak, pointing out that Section 8 applies to anyone who accepts illegal gratification for inducing any public servant “by corrupt or illegal means”.

Calling corruption “corroding, like cancerous lymph nodes, the vital veins of the body politic”, the court cited a Supreme Court precedent to underline that such offences must be dealt with with “an iron hand”. While noting Nayak’s age and cardiac ailment, the judge held that “the act of the accused does not deserve any leniency”.

Nayak was sentenced to five years’ simple imprisonment and a ₹1 lakh fine, with a six-month simple imprisonment term in default of payment. He was granted set-off for the two months and five days spent in custody, between May 6 and July 11, 2017.