2 water supply dept officials, peon arrested for taking Rs4.2L bribe

Chandrapur: Two officials and a peon from the rural water supply department, Chandrapur Zilla Parishad, were arrested on Thursday by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) team for taking a bribe of Rs4.20 lakh.The arrested officials include executive engineer Harsh Bohare, senior assistant Sushil Gundawar, and contract employee peon Mateen Shaikh. The complainant, a resident of mouza Jiwati in Chandrapur district and a contractor by profession, had carried out water supply works in 23 villages under the Maharashtra government's Jal Jeevan Mission programme in Jiwati and Rajura talukas.According to the complaint, the contractor had submitted bills for works completed in 10 villages for approval at the rural water supply department. Of these, bills amounting to Rs43 lakh for works in five villages had been cleared. For clearing the remaining bills, Bohare allegedly demanded Rs4 lakh, instructing the complainant to hand over the money to Gundawar. In addition, Gundawar allegedly demanded Rs20,000 for himself, making the total bribe amount Rs4.2 lakh.As the complainant was unwilling to pay the bribe, he approached the ACB office at Chandrapur and lodged a complaint. Verification conducted on April 7 and April 9 confirmed that Bohare and Gundawar had indeed demanded the bribe and were prepared to accept it.An ACB team laid a trap on Thursday and sent the complainant with the bribe money. Gundawar accepted Rs4.2 lakh in the presence of witnesses. Of this, he kept Rs20,000 for himself and handed over Rs4 lakh to Mateen Shaikh, instructing him to deliver it to Bohare.Accordingly, Mateen Shaikh delivered the money to Bohare's residence. Following this, both Bohare and Gundawar, who accepted the bribe, and Mateen Shaikh, who acted as a courier, were taken into custody.The operation was led by deputy superintendent of police, ACB, Manjusha Bhosale. An offence was registered against the arrested public servants at Ramnagar police station, Chandrapur.