Revenue Official Held For Demanding Rs 25L Bribe
JAMMU: The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Friday arrested a revenue official for demanding Rs 25 lakh for issuing a revenue document to a man in Akhnoor area of this winter capial.
The anti-graft body received a complaint against Ashok Sharma, Naib Tehsildar and his associates for demanding a bribe of Rs25 lakh for issuing a revenue extract (fard), an ACB spokesperson said Friday.
The complainant, he said, had claimed to have applied for issuance of fard in respect of land in the name of his wife measuring 1 kanal 19 marlas under khasra No. 440/299 situated at Mawa Karora, Sungal Morh, Akhnoor before then patwari Halqa Akhnoor Khas namely Ravinder Bhagat.
“It was alleged that after filing the application, the patwari Ravinder Bhagat and Naib Tehsildar, Ashok Sharma who were at that time posted in the area, approached the complainant through their tout Raman Gupta and asked for a bribe of Rs30 lakh for the issuance of the fard,” he said.
The spokesperson said both of them contacted the complainant and on negotiation the amount was settled at Rs25 lakh.
“Thereafter, both Patwari and the Naib Tehsildar were transferred out of that place, but the amount of Rs25 lakh was still being demanded by Naib Tehsildar Ashok Sharma from the complainant,” he said.
He further said that a tout named Raman Gupta sent the soft copy of fard to Chiku Gupta, the buyer of the land, who later forwarded the same copy on whatsapp to the complainant.
“The original copy of fard, which was stated to be retained by the Naib Tehsildar Ashok Sharma was not being provided to the complainant because he was demanding the bribe money of `25 lakhs,” the Bureau spokesperson said.
He further said that the Naib Tehsildar demanded to pay the amount of bribe in parts, though he will provide the fard only after getting the full amount of Rs 25 lakh.
“The complainant had further alleged that he has been asked by the Naib Tehsildar to bring at least Rs1.50 lakh. On this the complainant approached ACB for appropriate action against the officials,” the ACB spokesperson said.
On this complaint, he said, acase FIR No. 06/2022 was registered at Police Station ACB Central against the accused persons U/s 7, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 R/w PC (Amendment) Act, 2018 and sec 120-B IPC for investigation.
“During the course of investigation, a trap was constituted which laid a successful trap during which the accused Ashok Kumar, Naib Tehsildar, presently posted at Gharota was caught red handed while demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs1.5 lakh from the complainant. He was arrested on the spot by the ACB team,” the spokesperson said.
He further said that the bribe money was also recovered from his possession in presence of independent witnesses.
“Searches were also conducted in the residential houses of all the accused persons and Rs 9 lakh was seized from Raman Gupta R/o Akhnoor,” the Bureau spokesperson said, adding further investigation is going on.