Palghar: Village development officer, peon held over bribe of Rs 5,000

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The Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested a village development officer and a peon in connection with a bribe of Rs 5,000 in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official told news agency PTI on Friday.

Dayanand Gawade, deputy superintendent of police ACB, Palghar, told PTI village development officer Sunil Patil (53) from Talasari taluka had demanded Rs 5,000 from a plumbing contractor.

While the contractor had received the payment for the work he had in the village under Patil, the latter asked for the money claiming that he had processed the bills speedily, the official told PTI.

After receiving a complaint from the contractor, the ACB laid a trap and arrested peon Amit Dileep Dubla (35) while accepting the bribe amount on behalf of Patil on Thursday. A case has been registered against the two under the Prevention of Corruption Act at Gholwad police station, the official told PTI.

Earlier, the police in Maharashtra's Palghar district have arrested three brothers for trying to misappropriate Rs 3 lakh by making false claims of a highway robbery, an official told PTI on Wednesday.

One of the accused, Mahendra Gurjar (35), filed a complaint with the Valiv police station on September 9 claiming that four persons attacked him on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway and snatched his bag containing Rs 3 lakh that he had collected for the sale of edible oil on behalf of his company, reported PTI.

According to senior inspector Jairaj Ranavre of the police station, cops registered a case and began an investigation, but the complainant, a resident of Navi Mumbai, was not cooperative. He even switched off his mobile phone, reported PTI.

The police worked on technical inputs to track the complainant to his native place in Rajasthan and brought him to Valiv for interrogation. He then told the cops that he had made false claims to keep the money with himself. The police then arrested Mahendra, the official told PTI.

The official told PTI the police also arrested Mahendra's brothers Ramlal Gurjar (28) from Dombivili on the outskirts of Mumbai and Shitanram Gurjar (38), a resident of Navi Mumbai, for being a part of the conspiracy.

They also recovered the entire Rs 3 lakh, he said.

(With inputs from PTI)