Thane: Revenue official, two others held for accepting bribe in Bhiwandi

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has booked a Naib Tehsildar and two other persons in an illegal gratification case. The accused were allegedly demanding money from a man who was to get compensation from the government for his agricultural land for the Kalyan Kasara second railway route. The bribe was allegedly being sought to get the work done.

The ACB has seized 43 blank cheques totalling to Rs 2.34 crore. The accused persons have been identified as Vitthal Gosavi (the Naib Tehsildar posted at Bhiwandi), Vijay Bhaeer and Laxman Rajpurohit. ACB officials said the government had assured the complainant Rs 55 lakh as compensation for his land acquired for the rail route.

Gosavi had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 8 lakh from the complainant who had been following up at his office to seek his compensation money. The victim then approached the ACB and lodged a complaint against the accused.

An ACB official said that verification of the allegations revealed that Gosavi finally settled for a bribe amount for Rs 6 lakh. On Thursday, Rajpurohit was caught red-handed accepting it from the complainant at the behest of Gosavi, after which Gosavi and Bhaeer, too, were nabbed. Officials said investigations are on to ascertain why the accused persons had blank cheques