State govt official gets 18 months in jail for taking ` 50,000 bribe
MUMBAI: Five years after he was caught accepting a bribe of Rs50,000, Madhav Vishwanath Domkondwar, member secretary of the water supply and sewerage board, was sentenced to 18-month imprisonment by the special Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) court on Wednesday.
A civil contractor, the complainant in the case, was awarded a Rs12-crore contract for construction of channels for a water supply scheme in 2007. After completing the work, he submitted a proposal stating that the project cost has been increased to Rs13.5 crore on account of the inflated price of raw material. The government, however, rejected the proposal. He, then, approached the sessions court at Raigad, which fixed the amount to Rs12.27 lakh against his demand of Rs1.5 crore.
When the complainant approached the board office at Mandgaon, Domkondwar allegedly demanded Rs5 lakh as bribe to disburse the amount. The contractor, then, filed a complaint with the ACB.
Following a preliminary inquiry, the ACB laid a trap and caught Domkondwar while accepting Rs50,000 from the contractor.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs5,000 on the member secretary.
Source: Hindustan Times, Page No. 6, Dated: August 10, 2012