Ahmednagar civic chief, PA lands into ACB trap; Municipal commissioner Dr Jawale sought bribe of Rs 8 lakh through PA Deshpande

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

In a major action, the anti-corruption bureau (ACB, Jalna) office trapped the municipal commissioner and administrator of the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation (AMC) Dr Pankaj Jawale (47) and his typist-cum-personal assistant (additional charge) Shridhar Deshpande (48) for accepting a bribe of Rs 8 lakh from the complainant (41) recently. The process to register a case against them was underway at the Tofkhana police station in Ahmednagar. Dr Jawale is a native of Majalgaon in Beed district.

According to the complainant, he along with their partners, runs a construction business under the name 4K Realty. They purchased a plot admeasuring 2260.22 square meters in Nalegaon area within the jurisdiction of the AMC. They intended to undertake construction on this plot, therefore, applied online for the necessary construction permit at the AMC office on March 18.

For the permit, the civic chief, through his personal assistant, demanded a bribe of Rs 9.30 lakh. After negotiation, the deal was fixed at Rs 8 lakh. The complainant was unwilling to pay the bribe, therefore, he lodged a complaint with the ACB (Jalna) on June 19.

Under the guidance of the ACB superintendent of police (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) Sandeep Aatole and additional SP Mukund Aghav, the deputy superintendent of police (ACB Jalna) Kiran Bidwe and his team laid a trap. The ACB verified the bribe demand (from both the commissioner and his assistant) on June 19 and 20.

During the verification, Deshpande, in the presence of witnesses, demanded a bribe of Rs 8 lakh, from the complainant for securing the building permission from the civic chief. It was revealed that the civic chief had encouraged Deshpande to demand the bribe from the complainant.

The ACB Jalna team comprising police inspector Shankar Mutekar, Gajanan Ghaywat, Shivaji Jamdhade, Ganesh Cheke, Ganesh Bujade, Shivling Khule, Atiq Tidke, Gajanan Kharat, Vithal Kapse and Bhalchandra Binorkar took efforts in cracking the bribery case.