Gujarat education department clerk arrested for graft

AHMEDABAD: A clerk of the state education department was arrested on Sunday for taking a bribe to facilitate a teacher's transfer. The accused, Mukesh Joshi, was caught by ACB officials when he was taking a bribe of Rs 25,000 from the complainant in the case.
Hansa Prajapati, a resident of Dariapur, works as a government school teacher in Kalol in Panchmahal district."Transfer of primary school teachers takes place on the basis of mutual convenience," said an ACB official. "In Hansa's case, an Ahmedabad-based primary school teacher wanted to shift to Kalol while Hansa wished to work closer to her home. Formalities of the swap were over and both teachers were awaiting written orders from the state education department."
Hansa's husband Haresh Prajapati went to the state education department and met Joshi who is in the department which handles teacher transfers. "Haresh said that Mukesh demanded Rs 2 lakh for issuing the transfer order," said the ACB official. "After much haggling the price was brought down by Mukesh to Rs 25,000. He directed Haresh to bring the money on Saturday."
On August 16, Haresh approached ACB and filed a complaint. ACB officials asked him to continue interacting with Mukesh while they laid a trap for the clerk.
The money transfer however did not take place on Saturday. In order to check if Haresh had tipped off authorities, Mukesh kept shifting the venue for the exchange of money and finally in the evening called the meeting off. Mukesh then asked Haresh to meet him on Sunday and also instructed him that he should bring his wife along.
Mukesh met Haresh and Hansa at the district panchayat office in Lal Darwaza. Mukesh suggested that they continue their conversation at a tea stall nearby. Here Mukesh took the money and also handed over Hansa's transfer orders. The moment the handover was complete, officers of the ACB converged on them and arrested Mukesh with the cash that had been marked by them. "Mukesh has been booked for corruption," said the ACB official.