Mumbai: ACB arrests BMC official and one more in bribery case

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials have arrested a medical health officer of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and a private person in a bribery case. The accused persons had allegedly demanded a bribe from a hotelier to clear his records in the local ward office.

The accused persons have been identified as Sandeep Gaikwad (46), medical health officer at the B/Ward of the BMC at Dongri and Dombivali resident Sachin Kokitkar (36).

According to the ACB, the complainant in the case is a hotelier and had purchased a hotel in 2018. The complainant had submitted an application to the B/Ward BMC office to get the health license which was on the name of the previous owner, transferred on his name and to rectify the PIN code of his hotel in the BMC records.

"The complainant has alleged that in order to do his work, Gaikwad had demanded a bribe of Rs 50000 and before approaching the ACB, the complainant had already given him Rs 40000. As per the victim, even after having paid a considerable amount of money, Gaikwad kept asking for more Rs 3000 to get NOC from the fire department," said an ACB official.

He added, "The complainant who did not wish to pay further to the accused, then approached the ACB. Verification of the allegations made by the complainant had revealed that Gaikwad had asked the victim to give Rs 3000 to Kokitkar, in order to get his job done. A trap was laid and Kokitkar was caught red-handed accepting a bribe. Later Gaikwad too was apprehended."

The accused persons have been booked under section 7 (Public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) of The Prevention of Corruption Act.