Deputy General Manager R S Verma was arrested yesterday after a contractor had complained that the official demanded illegal gratification for laying the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) network in villages through optical fibre, inspector incharge of Kotwali Nagar Posi Ram Sharma said. 

After the complaint, a trap was laid and the CBI slueths raided the BSNL office and arrested Verma while he was accepting the bribe, he said. 

After the arrest, the CBI team’s efforts to scrutinise the documents related to the optical fibre project were resisted by the office staff who held them captive for about an hour, Sharma said.

 Local police later reached the spot and got the team released, he said. The CBI team took Verma into custody before bringing him to Ghaziabad.