Guwahati, April 6: Teams of the Assam directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption laid three traps in 12 hours since late Wednesday evening and arrested three persons, including a sub-inspector of Assam Police, in bribery cases.
A complaint was received at the directorate, alleging that Suruzul Haque, a sub-inspector of police (unarmed branch) of Nagaon Sadar police station, Nagaon district, demanded Rs 25,000 as bribe from the complainant for giving relief to the complainant in an old pending criminal case being investigated at Nagaon Sadar police station by Haque.
The sub-inspector subsequently reduced the demand of the bribe amount to Rs 15000.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the directorate for taking necessary legal action against the above-mentioned public servant.
“Accordingly, in a late evening operation on Wednesday, a trap was laid in the Police Officers’ Club situated within the Police Reserve, Nagaon. The accused public servant had asked the complainant to come to his government residence to hand over the bribe amount. Thereafter, sub-inspector (UB), Suruzul Haque was caught red handed at 10.47pm, immediately after he accepted Rs 3,000 as part of the demanded bribe from the complainant. The bribe money has been recovered from his possession and has been seized accordingly in presence of independent witnesses,” an official statement said.
“Finding sufficient evidence against the accused public servant, he has been arrested by the team of the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption, Assam,” the statement said.
In this connection, a case has been registered in ACB Police Station on Wednesday vide ACB police case number 25/2023 under Section 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) against the sub-inspector (UB). Necessary legal follow up action is underway.
On the other hand, a team from the directorate trapped red handed Mukut Chandra Kumar, secretary of Lahkarghat Gaon Panchayat, Nagaon, after he accepted a part of demanded bribe from the complainant for releasing a cheque for house repair work. He was later arrested.
In the third trap, a similar operation was carried out by a vigilance team during which Md. Anowar Hussain, a lower division assistant at FA Ahmed High School, Biswanath ghat was caught red handed and subsequently arrested, after he accepted a bribe from the complainant for processing pension work.
Notably, the vigilance and anti-corruption department laid 16 successful traps in March 2023 and arrested 21 persons. Of them, 16 were public servants and five were middlemen.