ASI officials held in CBI bribery case

The CBI has arrested two officials of the Archaeological Survey of India for allegedly taking bribe to revoke an official notice and allowing continuation of work, officials said on Friday (April 3, 2026).

The agency said a monument attendant and a conservation assistant posted at the ASI’s Sub-Circle at Jantar Mantar were booked after a complaint that the former had demanded “illegal gratification/undue advantage of ₹3,50,000 on behalf of the accused conservation assistant from the complainant for revoking the notice” and allowing him to continue the work.

Following negotiations, the accused agreed to accept ₹3.10 lakh and directed the complainant to pay ₹1 lakh as part payment, a statement said.

Acting on the complaint, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) laid a trap on April 1 and caught the monument attendant “red-handed, while demanding and accepting the illegal gratification/undue advantage of ₹1,00,000 from the complainants as part payment of the demanded bribe of ₹3.10 lakh.” During the operation, “the role of the conservation assistant, Archaeological Survey of India, Sub-Circle-Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, also surfaced,” following which both officials were arrested, the agency said.

In a separate case, the agency also arrested a junior engineer and a Beldar of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s Shahdara North Zone for allegedly demanding a bribe of ₹80,000 from a complainant to avoid demolition action.