SDPO in ACB net for demanding Rs 20,000 bribe

BHANDARA: Sleuths of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered offences against Chandrakant Sangle, subdivisional police officer of Pavni subdivision, for demanding a bribe of Rs20,000 from a truck owner involved in sand transportation. The ACB registered offence under section 7(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act at Pavni police station. He has been arrested and produced before magistrate and remanded to one day police custody.
Chandrakant Sangle is a deputy superintendent of police and posted as subdivisional police officer at Pavni. He allegedly collected regular bribes from truck owners taking sand from river Vainganga to Nagpur via Bhiwapur. Sources claimed his weekly collection of bribes came to Rs7 to 10 lakh, which was taken every Saturday to Nagpur in a white car. Though truck owners were paying him off regularly, he was harassing them to extract more money.
Finally, truck owners tired of his coercive methods and one of them lodged a complaint with ACB Bhandara, who verified the facts and laid a trap on Wednesday. As per the directions of ACB, the truck owner called Sangle on Wednesday afternoon on his cell phone and asked him about the deal. SDPO Sangle demanded Rs20,000 clearly during the cell phone conversation, which was recorded by the ACB. Sleuths then raided the SDPO office and searched his two houses, where they found Rs3.06 lakh and Rs2 lakh in cash. ACB Bhandara arrested and produced him in court, which remanded him to one-day police custody. It is learnt that the district police authorities have suspended Sangle.