ACB official booked for graft in Nagpur

In a classic case of irony, the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Tuesday registered an offence against its own official for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 50,000, police said.

A case has been registered against inspector Pankaj Ukande of ACB Nagpur for accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a woman official of the city survey department in Maharashtra's Nagpur city, an official said.

Ukande had demanded Rs 2.5 lakh from the official of the city survey department in exchange of not naming her in a graft case, he said.

Ukande was the investigation officer in a graft case registered against Ashray Madhukar Joshi (40), who wascaught on November 8 while accepting bribe of Rs 1 lakh, the official said.

During investigation, the accused inspector approached a woman official of the department and threatened to implicate her as a co-accused in the case and later threatened to write to her superiors to take action against her, he said.

The woman official gave Ukande Rs 50,000 cash two weeks ago, but he allegedly demanded Rs 2 lakh more to settle the matter, he added.

Fed up of the harassment, the woman lodged a complaint with the ACB Nagpur last week, the official said, adding that the complainant handed over call recordings andCCTV footage as proof of Ukande's involvement.

An offence under section 7 (public servant taking gratification) of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered at Sadar Police station against Ukande, who is presently absconding.