Guwahati, Aug 17: In yet another instance of the state government’s zero-tolerance policy against corruption, a team from the Assam vigilance and anti-corruption directorate laid a trap on Wednesday and apprehended a block elementary education officer while accepting a bribe.
The arrest comes in the wake of a complaint received at the vigilance directorate to the effect that Lachit Basumatary, the accused block elementary education officer, Rani in Kamrup district, had demanded a bribe from the complainant’s wife for processing the post-transfer related work of the complainant’s wife pending at his office.
Unwilling to pay the bribe the complainant had approached the directorate for taking legal action.
“Accordingly, a trap was laid today near the office of the block elementary education officer, Rani, and Basumatary was caught red handed in his office chamber along with the bribe amount at 12.42 pm which he had received from the complainant,” an official statement issued here said.
The bribe money was seized from the possession of Basumatary in the presence of independent witnesses.
During further search of his personal Bolero vehicle, a cash amount of Rs 1 lakh was recovered by the team from the vigilance directorate.
“A house search of the accused is also being carried out,” the statement said.
A case has been registered at the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) police station under Section 7(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) against the accused official. Necessary legal follow up action is underway,” it added.
