Thane: An incident has come to light that an engineer who was part of the flying squad to take action against electricity theft in Ambernath demanded Rs 75,000 bribe from the customer who has done electricity theft. The complainant reported the matter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Thane. Accordingly, the ACB officials have arrested an engineer along with three of his associates on Monday,September 4.
The arrested accused have been identified as Hemant Govind Tidke (34) who is working as an assistant engineer in the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) office of Kalyan. And his associates are Sagar Thakur (32) junior clerk from Ambernath, Pandurang Devidas Suryavanshi (42) and Nitin Salve (35).
Details On The Arrests And Accused
Hanmant Kshirsagar, police inspector, ACB, Thane said, " Accused Hemant Tidke is an assistant engineer with MSEDCL in Kalyan branch and was a part of flying squad which went to check the electricity theft in Ambernath. He seized the light meter of the house where complainant was staying and took it for inspection on August 14. The flying squad team inspected the meter on August 28. Tidke said the complainant that there has been tampering in the meter and the light bill for last 3 years will have to be paid with a penalty of Rs 3 to 4 lakh. In order to bring the penalty amount upto Rs 1 lakh he will have to pay Rs 75,000 as a bribe."
Kshirsagar further added, " The complainant did not want to pay the bribe so he approached ACB on August 31. Based on the complaint our team laid a trap on Monday , September 4 and at around 11:33 am red handedly caught accused Pandurang Suryavanshi while accepting a bribe of Rs 70,000 near Radha Krishna Temple at Kalyan-Badlapur Road in Ambernath. Ambernath police registered a case against the four accused and further investigating the case."
