ACB catches ZP employee accepting Rs 20K bribe
CHANDRAPUR: Sleuths of the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) nabbed an assistant engineer of the public works department of Rajura Zilla Parishad while accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from a contractor on Thursday afternoon. The accused engineer Manohar Bakane had demanded the bribe for clearing documents related to release of security deposit of complainant Jagan Gop.
Deputy SP Ashok Jot said the complainant Jagan Gop had been allotted a contract of road construction between Babapur and Manoli in Rajura tehsil worth Rs 3.5 lakh some time back. After completion of work, Gop raised the bill and it was cleared.
However, the security deposit at the time of seeking the tender was pending with the PWD. Bakane, who was attached to Rajura subdivision of ZP PWD, had earlier cleared the bill of construction work carried out by Gop. Recently, Gop applied for release of his security deposit amount of Rs 19,000. Accused Bakane however refused to release the amount until a bribe of Rs 20,000 was paid by Gop against the bill cleared earlier and the release of the deposit amount.
Gop was not ready to pay the bribe, so he ostensibly agreed to pay the bribe, but filed a complaint with the ACB a few days back. Accordingly, the ACB laid a trap under the supervision of deputy SP Jot and sent Gop with the bribe money on Thursday to Bakane’s office in Rajura.
As soon as Bakane accepted the bribe amount of Rs 20,000 from complainant Gop, the lurking cops arrested the accused red-handed. Offences under relevant sections of the law have been registered against the accused Bakane at Rajura police station.