Vigilance & Anti-Corruption arrests junior engineer for taking bribe

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• Jun 1, 2022 | Dhupali Das

Over the last few months, vigilance teams have detained several government officials in bribery cases.

Digital Desk: The Assam Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption team set up a trap near the director of municipal administration's office in Dispur and arrested a junior engineer red-handed while collecting a bribe from the complainant.

Reportedly, at 12.30 pm on Wednesday, Debashis Das, a junior engineer, was caught red-handed collecting a bribe of Rs 25000 from the complainant.

"A complaint was received at this directorate alleging that Debashis Das demanded a bribe of Rs. 50,000 from the complainant in exchange for processing his file for payment against a work that was already completed by the complainant under the State Owned Priority Development (SOPD) scheme," the vigilance directorate said in a statement.

The complainant, unwilling to pay the bribe, contacted the directorate to take legal action against the public worker, following which a trap was planned to catch the junior engineer while he was accepting the money.

"In the presence of impartial witnesses, the bribe money was recovered from Das' hands. After the junior engineer was arrested, a search was conducted at his home in the Borthakur Mill area, and a team of the directorate confiscated cash worth Rs 3 lakh as well as other relevant documents," the statement stated. 

As per the official report, a case was filed against the junior engineer in the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) police station under ACB P.S case number 13/2022 under Sector 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as modified in 2018). 

Over the last few months, vigilance teams have detained several government officials in bribery cases.

A top officer of the district industries and commerce centre (DICC), Darrang, was caught taking a bribe from the complainant on May 24.

Moreover, a food safety officer was caught collecting a bribe last month after a trap was planned at the director of health services' office in Nagaon.