Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
The state government has assigned Jalna district collector Ashima Mittal the additional charge of Jalna municipal commissioner, four days after the previous commissioner, Santosh Khandekar, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly accepting a Rs 10 lakh bribe.
Mittal, a 2018-batch IAS officer, assumed the added responsibility on Monday and will hold both positions until further orders from the state urban development department. Khandekar was caught red-handed by ACB officials last Thursday while allegedly taking the bribe from a contractor to release payment for completed work. He was initially remanded to one-day police custody and later produced before a special court. Despite his counsel filing a bail application, the court rejected it, citing the seriousness of the offence and risk of tampering with evidence, and sent him to judicial custody.