Nawalparasi, September 18:

Cadres of Tarun Dal arrested five employees of the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), including assistant manager of the monitoring department, red-handed while taking bribe from Dumkibas-based Daunnedevi Oil Stores here today.

The Nepal Oil Corporation team led by assistant manager Dambar Basnet and Ananda Acharya, who were deputed from Kathmandu for quality check

and monitoring of petrol pumps, was nabbed while taking Rs 1 lakh bribe, said Tarun Dal’s Nawalparasi president Ganesh Bahadur Basnet.

NOC officer Nirmal Gautam, senior assistant Hikmat Thapa and driver Ram Prasad Upreti were also held along with a jeep.

“Accusing us of adulteration, the team demanded Rs 3 lakh from me,” pump owner Nandi Kishor Joshi said.

He said he paid Rs 1 lakh to them after they threatened him or revoking his licence.

All the members of the monitoring team were caught in the petrol pump while they were receiving the bribe and were handed over to the Area Police Office, Dumkibas.

In police custody, Acharya said NOC assistant general manager Sushil Jung Rana had dispatched them to “collect expenses for the Dashain”.

After the incident, the District Administration Office sealed the pump on the charge of adulteration and bribing the NOC officials.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority will probe the case, said chief district officer Govinda Khanal.