Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) officials today caught red-handed two contractual staff of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) while accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from the complainant against issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the construction, on Tuesday.
The accused demanded a bribe of Rs 8,000 from the complainant who is an employee of the rural police.
The ACB deputy superintendent Maruti Pandit said, the ACB laid a trap and arrested the CSMC’s contractual staff Pradeep Shivram Garade (12th housing scheme, Shivajinagar) and Surendra Rameshrao Rupade (11th housing scheme, Shivajinagar). Vedantnagar police station has registered an offence against them.”
According to ACB officials, “The complainant owns a house at Asiad Colony in Deolai vicinity. He had applied for the NoC in Ward Office Number 8. However, Garade demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 from him. After negotiation, the deal was fixed at Rs 8,000. The complainant paid the first instalment of Rs 5,000 to Garade. However, for the past few days, Garade was insisting the complainant pay the remaining Rs 3,000 to him.
The complainant then lodged a complaint with ACB. After verifying the facts, the ACB squad led by police inspector Reshma Saudagar and a team comprising head constable Ravindra Kale, Rajendra Sinkar and Changdev Bagul laid a trap in the ward office campus in the morning and arrested Rupade for accepting the bribe of Rs 3,000 on behalf of Garade.”
The action was taken under the guidance of ACB superintendent of police (SP) Sandeep Atole, additional SP Vishal Khambe and deputy SP Maruti Pandit.
Box
Trend of accepting bribe
A trend of doing citizens' regular work by taking bribes in government offices has become routine. The majority of the regular government officials and personnel are seen accepting the bribe without any hassles. Meanwhile, various incidents taking place in the city revealed that the contractual staff are also demanding bribes for doing the regular work of the citizens.