KDMC top official held for bribery

The Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested Sanjay Gajanan Gharat,51, an Additional Municipal Commissioner of Kalyan-Dombivili Municipal Corporation (KDMC), and two clerks on Wednesday for demanding a bribe of Rs 30 lakh from a builder to turn a blind eye to the unauthorised construction of a seven-storeyed building.

Based on a tip-off, the AntiCorruption Bureau laid a trap at the KDMC office and caught the accused Gharat accepting a bribe of Rs 8 lakh from the builder. Clerks Lalit Dashrath Amre, 42, and Bhushan Baliram Patil, 27, have been arrested. A complaint was registered by a builder from Dombivili on May 25.

Sub-Inspector Deepak Dalvi, the investigating officer of the case, said, “An initial demand of Rs 42 lakh was made by Gharat to not take any action against the builder for unauthorised construction. When Gharat started troubling the builder by demanding more money, the latter registered a complaint against him. However, the amount was later negotiated and Gharat had settled for Rs 35 lakh. He was arrested from the KDMC office while accepting the first instalment of the bribe, Rs 8 lakh, on Wednesday afternoon at 3.10pm.”

Gharat, Amre and Patil have been arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

In December 2015, Dombivili builder Jagdish Wagh had written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking to be saved from harassment by Gharat or else he would be compelled to take his life just like Thane builder Suraj Parmar, who had committed suicide on October 7, 2015, after facing harassment from four corporators of Thane Municipal Corporation. Wagh had been issued a notice from KDMC seeking a payment of Rs 3 crore in property tax. Wagh had alleged that Gharat was extorting money from him and was creating obstacles in his projects.