Guwahati, May 26: The general manager of the district industries and commerce centre (DICC), Darrang, was arrested by the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption on Tuesday afternoon after he was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe from the complainant.
According to official sources, a complaint was received at the directorate to the effect that Hemanta Kumar Talukder, the general manager of the district industries and commerce centre, Darrang, had demanded Rs 15000 as bribe from the complainant for sanctioning a loan under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) scheme.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the directorate for taking necessary legal action against the public servant.
Accordingly, a team from the directorate laid a trap near the office of Talukder at Mangaldoi, following which the general manager was caught red handed accepting a bribe of Rs10,000 from the complainant at 2.45pm.
The bribe money was seized from Talukder in the presence of independent witnesses.
A case has been registered in Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) police station on Tuesday vide ACB P.S. case number – 12/2022 under Section 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) against Talukder.
“Necessary legal follow up action is underway,” an official said.
It may be mentioned that the vigilance directorate has over the past few months, arrested several officials/employees based on complaints by complainants
The vigilance and anti-corruption directorate have nabbed many top-ranked government officials in bribery cases based on complaints over the past few months.