Srinagar- The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Monday arrested a forest department officer for demanding and accepting a bribe from a contractor in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Mohd Sultan Bhat, in-charge Block Forester of Budugam Tulail was arrested by the sleuths of ACB when he was accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000 from a contractor over a no-objection certificate (NOC), a Bureau spokesperson said.
Giving more details of the case, he said, a written complaint was received from a contractor stating that he is executing the work allotted to him under JJM Scheme in Special sub Division Gurez during which he was being harassed by the forester Block Tulail Gurez on pretext of NOC & was demanding a bribe of Rs 30,000.
The complainant, the spokesperson said, also maintained that he was allotted many works of various government departments, which he completed as per given allotments.
He said that the contractor was to carry out work in villages Gulshanpora and Sardab in Tulail area of Gurez and had to complete it in short time period due to early cold weather.
“While his labour was working at Gratnar Gulshanpora Budogam Tulail for laying of pipe line of above said schemes, Forester Mohd Sultan stopped the work on the excuse of NOC and demanded a bribe of Rs 30,000 to allow the continuation of work,” the spokesperson said.
On receipt of the complaint, he said, the allegations were discreetly verified. He said that the discreet probe conducted revealed that the allegations leveled in the complaint by the complainant were true and public servant was demanding bribe from complainant for settling NOC issue and allowing complainant to work smoothly in the forest area.
“Accordingly on the basis of findings & recommendations of the Enquiry Officer prima facie offences u/s 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (as amended in 2018) were made out against the accused public servant and a Case FIR No. 03/2023 was registered at this Police Station ACB Baramulla u/s 7 of the PC Act 1988 (as amended in 2018),” the spokesperson said.
Immediately after registration of the FIR, he said, a team headed by DySP Rank officer was constituted to lay trap on the public servant.
“The accused was arrested on spot and bribe money of Rs 30,000 was also recovered from his possession in presence of independent witnesses,” he said, adding that further investigations of the case are going on.
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