Jorhat, Dec. 26: The CBI today arrested a senior manager of the Airport Authority of India (engineering civil section) Muralidharan P. Advani for accepting a bribe.

CBI sources said four officials of the investigative agency, led by additional superintendent of police P. Roy, laid a trap and caught Advani red-handed while accepting the bribe in his office around 11am.

“A contractor working on the airport’s infrastructure development had complained on December 24 that Advani was demanding Rs 75,000 for passing his bills. Today, the contractor gave Advani Rs 50,000 on which red powder was sprinkled. When Advani accepted the amount, the CBI team arrested him,” the source said.

Advani was tonight taken to Guwahati where he will be produced in the CBI special court tomorrow. A case will be registered there under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for demanding and accepting illegal gratification.

Sunil Patkar, director of AAI here, was tight-lipped about the incident. He said he had just heard about it and would not like to comment.

A massive overhauling was carried out at the Jorhat airport this year, including extension and broadening of the runway, which had kept the airport closed for a month in April-May.