Guwahati, March 8: A team from the Assam vigilance and anti-corruption directorate laid a trap and arrested a forest range officer in a bribery case in Golaghat district on Friday.
According to officials, Gobinda Taid, the forest range officer of Jamuguri Forest Range, had demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 from the complainant for allowing movement of vehicles of the complainant carrying forest products.
However, unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant had approached the directorate for taking necessary legal action against the public servant.
“Accordingly, a trap was laid by a team from the directorate in the office of the Jamuguri Forest Range and Taid was caught red handed in his office chamber immediately after he accepted Rs 20,000 as bribe from the complainant,” the superintendent of police, directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption, Assam, informed.
The bribe money was recovered from the forest range officer’s possession and seized accordingly in the presence of witnesses.
“During search of the office chamber of the public servant, an additional amount of Rs 60,000 was recovered from his laptop bag and seized accordingly in the presence of independent witnesses,” the SP said.
In this connection, a case has been registered under Section 7 (a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, at the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) police station on Friday.
Subsequently, the vigilance team found sufficient evidence to arrest the forest range officer.
