Edu officer held for taking Rs 1 lakh bribe
The Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested an in charge education officer of Surat Municipal School Board while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh here on Monday. The accused, whose regular posting is as deputy education officer in Surat district panchayat, was nabbed while accepting the bribe on a roadside samosa kiosk at Timaliyawad.
A school bench manufacturer Govind Devraj Dhameliya, resident of Varachha, had lodged a complaint with the ACB, alleging that Dilip Thakore had demanded a bribe of Rs 3 lakh from him. The ACB laid a trap according to which Dhameliya asked Thakore to collect Rs 1 lakh from him at a roadside kiosk. Thakore came to the spot along with his driver Bharat Vasekar and Jayanti Patel, office superintendent, and asked Vasekar to accept the money.
The ACB sleuths immediately nabbed Vasekar, Thakore and Patel on the spot for accepting the bribe.
According to ACB, Thakore had asked for the money to give distribution order of 300 benches, which is part of the total 1,100 bench order given to Dhameliya by the municipal school board. As part of the order for 1,100 benches for municipal-run schools in the city, Dhameliya had manufactured 300 and wanted distribution permission for them.
Dhameliya bagged the Rs 17 lakh contract through a bidding process. The total bribe amount was fixed at Rs 3 lakh for distribution of all the 1,100 benches. The first component of the bribe was to be paid on Monday.
Dhameliya had quoted a price of Rs 1,800 for each bench. Thakore had begun to demand bribe from him after he won the contract.
Fearing ACB action in office, Thakore agreed to accept the bribe on road through his driver. However, he was unaware of the trap laid for him that led to his being caught red-handed by the ACB officials.