The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday (July 19, 2026) arrested a person for allegedly impersonating an official of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The accused demanded and collected bribes from applicants seeking loans under the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF).
The accused, identified as Prabhu Dayal, claimed that he had been posted in the Department’s Krishi Bhawan office. He allegedly sought a bribe of ₹45,000 from the complainant, equivalent to 2% of the ₹22,50,000 loan the latter had applied for.
The complainant runs a poultry farm in Lalpur village of Kashipur tehsil in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar. He had applied for the loan through the Udyami Mitra portal.
Acting on the complaint, the agency laid a trap and arrested a private person on June 30, a day after he allegedly received the first instalment of ₹5,000 through a QR code sent to the complainant’s mobile phone. During questioning, he purportedly disclosed the identity of the main accused as Prabhu Dayal.
Subsequently, the CBI launched a hunt for him. “During investigation, it was found that the accused private person had access to information of loan applicants/applications of AHIDF and he used to make calls to large number of applicants daily demanding bribe amounts from them for avoiding rejection of loan/re-submission of proper loan application/approval of loan applications,” the agency said.
Posing as an AHIDF official, the accused had been demanding and receiving bribes from several applicants on a daily basis. The money would be sent through UPI to the accounts linked to other applicants and then transferred to other persons’ accounts.
Based on the initial findings, a CBI team mounted surveillance on Mr. Dayal in Delhi, Agra, and adjoining areas. “Intensive efforts were undertaken by analysing the CDRs (Call Detail Records) of various mobile numbers connected to the accused, bank accounts of suspected persons and IP addresses connected with loan applications of various applicants,” the CBI said.
The agency found that the accused had been changing his mobile phone numbers and locations to evade detection. Acting on a specific information that he had returned to his house in Agra, the CBI picked him up from there.
Published – July 19, 2026 08:37 pm IST
