Guwahati, Sep 9: Two employees of the Assam forest department were arrested by a team from the state vigilance and anti-corruption directorate over bribery charges on Friday.
An official statement issued here informed that a complaint was received at the directorate alleging that Kamini Narzary, a forester (grade II) posted in the office of the divisional forest officer, Kachugaon forest division, Gossaigaon, had demanded Rs 40,000 as bribe from the complainant for regularising a forest case in the name of the complainant.
Later, the bribe amount was reduced to Rs 35,000 by the accused public servant.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the directorate for taking necessary legal action against the above-mentioned public servant.
Accordingly, a vigilance team laid a trap in the Padma Beel area under Gossaigaon police station in Kokrajhar district on Friday noon and apprehended Narzary and Prabin Brahma, a forest guard, from the office of the divisional forest officer, Kachugaon forest division from a dhaba soon after they accepted the demanded bribe from the complainant and were counting the bribe amount of Rs 20,000.
The bribe money was recovered from their possession and seized in presence of independent witnesses.
A case has been registered in the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) police station under Section 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) and Section 120 B of IPC in this connection.
Necessary legal follow up action is being taken.
The Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government has so far acted tough on corrupt government officials as part of a sustained zero-tolerance drive against corruption across government departments.
On Wednesday, a lat mandal of Patharighat revenue circle in Darrang district was also caught red-handed accepting a bribe.
Sources inform that close to 50 government officers and employees, across various government departments, have been caught red-handed while accepting bribes and arrested since May 10, 2021.