Guwahati, June 1: A team from the Assam directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption laid a trap near the office of the director of municipal administration at Dispur and apprehended a junior engineer while accepting a bribe from the complainant.
The junior engineer, Debashis Das was caught red handed while accepting a bribe amount of Rs 25000 from the complainant at 12.30 pm here on Wednesday.
“A complaint was received at this directorate to the effect that Debashis Das had demanded a sum of Rs. 50,000 as bribe from the complainant for processing his file for payment against the work already completed by the complainant under the State Owned Priority Development (SOPD) scheme,” a statement from the vigilance directorate said.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the directorate for taking necessary legal action against the public servant and a trap was laid to catch the junior engineer while taking the bribe amount.
“The tainted bribe money was seized from the possession of Das in the presence of independent witnesses. A search was conducted after the apprehension of the junior engineer at his residence in the Borthakur Mill area here and cash amounting Rs 3 lakh along with other incriminating documents were seized by a team of the directorate,” the statement said.
A case has been registered in the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) police station vide ACB P.S case number 13/2022 under Sector 7(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) against the junior engineer.
Necessary legal follow up action is underway.
Vigilance teams have arrested many government officials in bribery cases over the past few months.
On May 24, a top official of the district industries and commerce centre (DICC), Darrang, was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe from the complainant.
Last month, a food safety officer was caught taking a bribe after a trap was laid at the office of the director of health services in Nagaon.