Maharashtra: Tehsil office accountant held by ACB for bribery in Gondia

Representational Image. File Pic

The Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau arrested an accountant in the tehsil office in Gondia on Thursday for allegedly seeking and accepting a bribe from a health worker, reported PTI citing an ACB official.

The accused indentified as Suresh Ramkishore Sharnagat (36) was an accountant on contractual basis at the tehsil health office in Gondia's Goregaon area. As per the PTI report, he had sought Rs 3,000 to clear the complainant's incentive arrears of Rs 16,500, Inspector Atul Tawade said.

"Sharnagat was held while accepting Rs 2,500 from the complainant in a trap laid by the ACB. A case under Prevention of Corruption Act has been filed at Goregaon police station," he said, reported PTI.

In another incident, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had booked an assistant commissioner of state tax and some other officers of the Maharashtra GST department allegedly for demanding a bribe of Rs 1 crore from a company's director to settle a pending tax matter, officials said.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau registered the case under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Arjun Suryawanshi, the assistant commissioner of state tax (investigation branch), and other officers on February 2, newswire PTI reported.

Section 7 of the act deals with an offence related to a public servant being bribed.

The FIR was registered after a letter was written by the special commissioner of state tax and chief vigilance officer to Maharashtra director general of police (ACB) seeking an investigation into the alleged corruption by officers of the investigation branch of the state tax, the officials said.

During the probe, it came to light that Suryawanshi and his team conducted raids between July 5 and August 7 last year on a firm, which had an outstanding tax of more than Rs 20 crore, said the official.

Despite several reminders, the firm's director did not pay the pending tax, following which the GST department officials visited his office and residence also, he said.

On August 21, Suryawanshi allegedly sent a WhatsApp message demanding Rs 1 crore from the firm's director to settle the tax matter, said the official.

The bribe demand was confirmed (though no money exchanged hands) during investigation after which the FIR was registered, he said, adding further probe was underway.

Meanwhile, unidentified men allegedly stole the control unit of an electronic voting machine (EVM) and some stationery from the office of a revenue official in Maharashtra's Pune district.

A CCTV footage of the theft has surfaced on social media.

The incident occurred at the office of a tehsildar in Saswad on February 3, an official said.

"The control unit of an EVM machine and some paper reels were stolen. We have deployed teams to nab the three men involved in the theft," Superintendent of Police Pune Rural Pankaj Deshmukh said.

A case has been registered at Saswad police station, he said. (With inputs from PTI)