An officer with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFI) and two private persons were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at Malleswaram's SRV Studio in Bengaluru on Wednesday, November 28, following an elaborate operation exposing the officer's alleged demands for bribes to certify a Kannada movie. The accused officer has been identified as Prashant Kumar.
The CBI took action based on a Kannada filmmaker’s complaint that he was facing persistent hurdles in obtaining a censor certificate due to Prashant, who he alleged was consistently demanding bribes from him. He was prompted to approach the CBI after enduring a week of alleged harassment.
In response to the filmmaker’s complaint, the CBI devised a sting operation, instructing the filmmaker to proceed with the bribe. Acting on this information, CBI officers arrived at the SRV Studio at 6 pm on November 28, during which Prashant was caught red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 12,000.
More than ten CBI officers dressed in civilian attire executed the operation, before taking Prashant into custody on charges of corruption. “CBI laid a trap and caught the accused while demanding & accepting a bribe of Rs.12,000/- from the Complainant. Search was conducted at the premises of Regional Officer which led to recovery of Rs.3,00,000/- (sic),” the CBI said in a statement.
A few weeks ago, actor Vishal had filed a bribery complaint against officials of the CBFC in Mumbai, alleging that they demanded Rs 6.5 lakh to issue a censor certificate for the Hindi version of his latest Tamil film Mark Antony. The CBI on October 5 registered a case against three private persons and unknown others including officials of the Board.
On Tuesday, Vishal took to X (Twitter) to say that he was on his way to the CBI office in Mumbai to take part in an inquiry in connection with the case. “Now on my way to CBI office in Mumbai for an enquiry regarding the CBFC case. Lol. Never ever thought I will be going to this office too in my life (sic),” he wrote.