The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has arrested four persons in two different trap cases registered since Monday.
In the latest case on Tuesday, the ACB arrested Suhas Rokde, 35, a private agent at Mulund Tehsildar office and advocate Sandeep Sonawane, 40. The complainant in the case is a law student studying in the final year. The student is interning with a lawyer and approached the Mulund Tehsildar office to get a solvency certificate done for an individual.
According to ACB, when the student approached the office, a bribe demand was made. The student approached the ACB in this regard. “Investigations revealed that Rokde demanded the bribe to get the work done from the office. We laid a trap in which Rokde and Sonawane were caught accepting Rs 10,000,” said an ACB officer. The agency is investigating if any employee is involved in the case. Sonawane is an advocate by profession.
In another trap case on Monday, ACB arrested two officials of the BMC for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20.000. According to the ACB, the name of the accused are Subhash Raut, 54, a mukadam and his associate Waswani Naukudkar, 52, both attached to the G-north ward which includes Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim.
The complainant in the case is a Dharavi resident who was undertaking renovation of his house. The two officials demanded a bribe of Rs 25,000 to allow the renovation and not take any actions for the illegal construction. The complainant, who did not wish to pay a bribe, approached the ACB in this regard. The complaint was verified and a trap was laid in which the duo were caught red-handed while accepting Rs 20,000, a little less than the demand. “Raut accepted the money and handed it over to Naukudkar who kept the amount in his pocket. We caught them,” said an ACB officer.
The Mumbai unit of the ACB has registered 13 cases this year which includes ten trap cases and three cases of disproportionate assets. The highest number of cases registered this year in the state is by Pune unit (111 cases).
Maharashtra stood first when it came to corruption cases in the year 2019, revealed the latest statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The state registered a total 891 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act and related sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) followed by Rajasthan (424), Tamil Nadu (418), Karnataka (379), Odisha (353) among others.
