Srinagar, March 11: A garrison engineer with the air force was arrested by the CBI yesterday after it caught him red-handed taking a bribe of Rs 40,000 from a local contractor.

A CBI spokesperson said the officer, P.K. Shrivastava, was demanding “illegal gratification” of Rs 40,000 from a local contractor Muzaffar Khan, who lodged a complaint with the investigating agency.

“Based on this complaint, a trap was organised by the CBI and the accused (Shrivastava) was caught red-handed on March 10 (yesterday)… in the office of the air force station, Awantipore (25km from Srinagar in South Kashmir),” he said.

The spokesperson said the agency had recovered Rs 40,000 from Shrivastava’s possession. A search in his office later yielded Rs 7 lakh in cash.

“A number of (bank) pass books, ATM cards and cheque books were also recovered from his official quarters,” the spokesperson said.

The engineer was produced before the court of the special judge (anti-corruption), Srinagar, which remanded him in CBI custody for three days. The officer will be produced before the court again on March 14.

CBI sources said the engineer had asked the contractor for Rs 40,000 to release the payment for a project undertaken by him and to award him future contracts.

“He had withheld the bill for several weeks after which the contractor approached us,” a source said.

The CBI team, led by police superintendent K.L. Raina, raided the tainted engineer’s office.

“The work pertained to construction of some structures at the air force base in Awantipore,” the source said.

“We are trying to figure out how Rs 7 lakh cash was lying in his office.”