Mumbai: Civic staff held for accepting bribe to facilitate drainage work

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday arrested a civic employee for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 to facilitate drainage work.

According to the ACB, the name of the arrested accused is Sambhaji Devkate,41, an assistant attached with the drainage department, G north ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in Dadar.

“The complainant resides at Basveshwar Nagar in Dharavi. He was seeking permission to undertake repair works for drainage for which he was required to dig a road,” said an officer from the ACB. When the complainant met Devkate, the latter demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000. Subsequently, the complainant approached ACB on Thursday after which the case was verified and registered. A trap was laid in which Devkate was caught red handed while accepting the bribe amount. This is the fifth case of the year registered by the Mumbai range of ACB.

The accused has been charged under section 7 (public servant taking gratification) of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988. The ACB will investigate into the assets of the arrested government official for further investigations. The ACB has appealed people to dial their toll-free number 1064 to report bribe demands made by government servants.