3 in registrar’s office held for graft
An assistant registrar, a senior clerk and a peon in the suburban sub-district registrar’s office were caught accepting a bribe of Rs 2,500 for issuing a property Deed of Conveyance certificate to an applicant. According to the ACB, a teacher from a private school had purchased a tenement in a chawl at Chembur camp in 2009. When she ran into financial difficulties, she mortgaged her LIC policies and property ownership documents at the Janakalyan Bank, Sindhi Society branch to obtain a loan. The bank found the Deed of Conveyance between two previous owners missing and asked her to collect the same from the sub-district registrar’s office.
She approached Rupa Mankar, the assistant registrar, to clear her application and handover the Deed of Conveyance. Mankar allegedly asked her to meet senior clerk, Arti Bhatkar who demanded a bribe for herself, Mankar and the peon. The woman then approached the ACB. On Monday, when she went to pay Rs 2,500 to the trio at the sub-district registrar’s office, in the MHADA building, the ACB sleuths nabbed them.