Mumbai: The Mumbai Unit of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) have arrested Mandar Tari, an official from the K-East Ward of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in a case of allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a man in order not to take eviction action on his property and also to cooperate with the unauthorized construction.
Tari was absconding since the case was registered in August this year. He was arrested after his anticipatory bail application was rejected by the High Court, ACB officials said on Thursday.
In August, the ACB had registered a case against Mandar Ashok Tari, Designated Officer, K-East Ward, Andheri and private persons Mohammad Shehzada Mohammad Yasin Shah and Pratik Vijay Pise (both arrested in August).
According to the ACB, the complainant has a four-storied building and since the upper two floors are unauthorized, in order to not to take eviction action on it and also to cooperate with the unauthorized construction there after purchasing the plot, BMC's K East Ward, civic official Mandar Ashok Tari had demanded bribe of Rs 2 crore from the complainant.
Since the complainant did not want to pay a bribe to the public servant, on 31/07/2024, he appeared before the ACB office and filed a complaint against the public servant. A verification into the allegation made in the complaint was conducted on 06/08/2024 and during the verification, it was revealed that Tari had demanded a bribe of Rs 2 crore.
A trap was then laid on August 07 and two private persons were caught red-handed while accepting the first instalment of Rs 75 lakh from the complainant.
A case had been registered against the accused trio under the relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Tari will be produced before the concerned court on Friday where ACB will seek his remand for custodial interrogation, officials said.
