senior civic employee caught taking Rs 70,000 bribe
The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested a municipal corporation employee while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 70,000 from a builder on Friday. Pradeepkumar Damodar Das, who works an assistant manager with the Solid Waste Management department of the corporation’s southward office at Kandivli, was accepting bribe for granting licence to remove debris. Maruti Changdev Khare, a labourer with the same department, who was with him, was also arrested.
According to the ACB officials, the complainant, a builder, had approached Das last month for licence to remove 100 brass of debris from an old house, which had been demolished.
The complainant told Das that he had secured licence to remove 5,000 brass debris from the Tehsildar of Uran. So, Das asked the complainant to submit the licence and his application.
When the complainant expressed his inability, citing technical reasons, Das allegedly demanded Rs 45,000 for himself and Rs 30,000 for one Godse. The complainant then approached the ACB.
The ACB set a trap in Das’s office and when the complainant went to handover the amount, Das allegedly asked him to handover the money to Khare. The ACB officials arrested the duo.
ACB sources said the investigation is on to find the details of Godse and he may face arrest if his involvement in the bribery case was established.