Guwahati, Dec 21: An enforcement officer cum in-charge district transport officer (DTO) in Karimganj district was arrested by the investigating officer of the Assam directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption on Wednesday in a bribery case.
Official sources said on Thursday that Sahab Uddin Tapadar, the enforcement inspector–cum-in-charge DTO at the office of the DTO and secretary, Regional Transport Authority, was apprehended for demanding bribe from the complainant and accepting it through an enforcement checker of the same office, Abu Saleh Md Zakaria.
Earlier, a complaint was received by the vigilance directorate alleging that Tapadar, in conspiracy with Zakaria, demanded Rs 16,000 as bribe from the complainant for allowing free movement of the vehicles of the complainant. Later, the public servants reduced the amount of bribe to Rs 10,000.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the directorate for taking necessary legal action against the public servants.
Accordingly, a trap was laid in the DRO office and Zakaria was caught red handed immediately after he accepted Rs 10,000 as the bribe amount demanded from the complainant. The bribe money was recovered from his possession and seized accordingly, in presence of witnesses.
Tapadar was subsequently apprehended as well.
Both the DTO and the enforcement checker were arrested after sufficient evidence against them were gathered by the vigilance team.
In this connection, a case was registered under Section 120 (B) IPC, read with section 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018), at the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) police station on Wednesday.
