Senior IPS officer’s staffer held taking Rs 2 lakh bribe……..Vijay V Singh
MUMBAI: Senior IPS officer and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) vigilance chief Jawahar Singh might be in a spot after the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) caught his reader accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from a government employee in Vashi on Saturday.
The reader, Deepak Shinde, has been arrested and Singh’s role in the episode is being probed, said a senior ACB official.
The complaint was lodged by deputy commissioner (sales tax), Pune, who is being investigated by the vigilance department in a corruption case. The inquiry report against the complainant was with Singh and was to be forwarded to the ACB. Singh allegedly demanded the bribe from the complainant, who had earlier worked with the Mhada, to block the report.
TOI tried to get in touch with Singh but his cellphone was switched off and all calls on the landline at his residence went unanswered.
The complainant recently approached the ACB (Navi Mumbai unit) and told the officials that he was being threatened by Singh, who claimed that there was strong evidence against him in the report. Singh allegedly asked the complainant to shell out Rs 5 lakh to block the report. The amount was brought down to Rs 2 lakh, an ACB official said.
After ascertaining the facts, the ACB officials laid a trap. Shinde, who is attached to the vigilance department as an assistant inspector, was arrested while he was accepting money.
This is not the first time that Singh and Shinde are courting controversy. A few months ago, small-time contractor Phiroz Khan had filed a complaint against them with the Malwani police. Khan, who was arrested after Singh filed a cheating complaint against him, alleged that Singh and Shinde had demanded money to help him in the case. The inquiry in the case is still pending. Singh was transferred to the post of inspector general (prisons) last week, but got a stay from the Central Administrative Tribunal.