The CBI on Wednesday arrested a senior official of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and two middlemen in connection with a Rs 3-crore bribery case, officials said.

The official arrested is additional director general, DRI, Ludhiana, Chander Shekhar, they said.

It was alleged that in June 2019, the DRI had conducted a search at a private clearing agency, which provides services to various exporters, a CBI spokesperson said in New Delhi, adding some documents pertaining to an exporter were also seized.

The complainant alleged that clearing house agent Anup Joshi and Rajesh Dhanda, a close friend of Shekhar, demanded Rs 3 crore on behalf of the public servant for ensuring that he is not implicated by the DRI over the documents recovered, officials said.

The agency arrested Joshi and Dhanda while allegedly receiving Rs 25 lakh as first installment of the bribe demanded by them on behalf of the officer, they said.

During the questioning, the middleman told the sleuths that the bribe was allegedly for the officer, they said.

They said searches are being conducted in New Delhi, Noida and Ludhiana.