SRINAGAR: Anti Corruption Bureau on Monday arrested a technical assistant beside and his associate at RDD Block Arin Bandipora for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe from a contractor.
In a statement the spokesman said that Anti Corruption Bureau received a complainant from a resident of village Sumlar, Bandipora alleging therein that he and his father had executed work in their village Sumlar District Bandipora titled “Development of the playfield by way of earth cutting and construction of retaining walls “under Block Development office Arina Bandipora.
“The concerned Technical Assistant of Block Development Office Arina namely Showkat Ahmad has released only part payment of their bill of Rs. 4,10,000/ and that he is demanding a bribe of Rs. 20,000/- for release of the remaining amount,” said the spokesman.
“It was also submitted by the complainant that he and his father requested concerned officer Showkat Ahmad several times to release the remaining amount. The officer did not agree to release the remaining amount of the complainant without getting a bribe of Rs. 20,000,” he said.
“Under these circumstances, the complainant approached ACB with his complaint and requested for necessary action against the concerned officer,” he added.
“ACB registered the case under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 as prima facie made out in complaint against the accused public servant Manzoor Ahmad technical assistant in Rural Development Department (REW) Block Arina Bandipura started investigations into the matter,” the spokesman said.
He said that immediately after registration of the case a trap team was also constituted headed by DySP Rank officer and independent witnesses, the team caught the accused officer Showkat Ahmad along with his tout Irfan Yousaf while demanding and accepting a bribe from the complainant and both of them were immediately arrested on the spot after completing necessary legal formalities and the bribe amount was also recovered in presence of independent witnesses.
Further investigations of the case are going on, said the spokesman.
