Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Indore, caught two officials of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 on Friday. The accused have been identified as Puneet Agrawal, assistant revenue officer (ARO), zone-19, and Rohit Sable, in-charge bill collector, revenue department, zone-19.
According to officials, the complainant Santosh Silawat, a scrap dealer and resident of Geeta Nagar, lodged a complaint at the office of EOW SP Rameshwar Yadav on Wednesday. He reported that his warehouse had been sealed by the revenue department after a notice was pasted by the IMC officer.
To reopen the sealed warehouse and settle pending property tax, the officials allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 1,00,000, later reducing it to Rs 50,000 and finally agreeing to accept Rs 40,000.
Acting on the complaint, EOW officials verified the complaint and after confirming the evidence, formed a trap team. On receiving the pre-decided signal from the complainant while handing over the money, the EOW team immediately raided the IMC zone-19 office in Pipliyahana and caught both officials with the bribe amount in their possession.
An FIR has been registered under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 61(2) of the BNS. Further investigation and interrogation of the accused are underway.
The trap operation was conducted by a team led by DSPs Kanhaiyalal Dangi and Sanjay Dwivedi, along with Inspectors Kailashchandra Patidar, Amod Singh Rathore, Harish Verma and other officers including Swatantra Kumar Gautam, Ajay Choube, Ajay Solanki, Vishal Kumar Bhayre, Pradeep Mishra, Neelam Kushwah, Yogendra Thakurand Rahul Singh.
Additional Rs 1,13,000 in cash seized from their possession
EOW SP Rameshwar Yadavsaid that during the raid at the Zone-19 office in Pipliyahana, while seizing the bribe amount of Rs 40,000, the team also recovered an additional Rs 1,13,000 in cash from the same briefcase. The accused failed to provide any satisfactory explanation for the source of this money.
In total, Rs 1,53,000 was seized, and the accused will now have to explain the source of the additional cash in court. Officials believe that the extra Rs 1,13,000 was also received through bribes, most likely for settling property tax cases.
- Story by Staff Reporter
