GUWAHATI: The vigilance and anti-corruption bureau of Assam Police arrested three forest officials, including a divisional forest officer (DFO) and an assistant conservator of forests (ACF) in North Lakhimpur, for accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a tractor owner.
Jadav Chandra Nath, DFO, North Lakhimpur, and Jasimuddin Ahmed, ACF, North Lakhimpur, were caught red handed by the anti-corruption team while they were accepting the bribe from the complainant, Md Zamiruddin of Gohan Dooni, Lakhimpur.
The police team recovered cash inside two envelopes of Rs 25000 each from the possession of DFO Nath.
The accused had demanded a bribe of Rs 1.85 lakh from the complainant to return his detained tractor and timber.
However, after negotiation, the bribe amount came down to Rs 50,000 as advance with an assurance to pay the remaining Rs 1.35 lakh at the time of releasing the tractor and timber.
“The complainant had approached the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) police station in the directorate of vigilance and anti corruption, Assam, and after the inquiry into the allegation, a trap was laid according to the standard procedure,” an official statement said.
A case (number 11/2020) under Section 7(a) of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act (as amended in 2018) has been registered in the ACB police station.
“During the investigation, another accused, Pranab Jyoti Dutta, forester-1 was also arrested. All the accused government officials have been arrested and will be forwarded to the Special Court in Guwahati,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, additional DGP (law and order), G.P Singh informed that during follow-up searches by the team, an amount of Rs 9,16,400 was recovered from the Lakhimpur and Guwahati houses of the arrested forest officials along with other incriminating documents.
