Assam Irrigation Secy remanded in judicial custody

Assam Irrigation Secretary Kujendra Doley, caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000, was remanded in judicial custody today for five days.
The Assam government's top official was arrested yesterday at his office by the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau sleuths while accepting the bribe from a contractor for clearing his pending bills.
Following his arrest, the bureaucrat was booked under various penal and anti-graft provisions and was produced in the court of special judge, who remanded him in judicial custody.
The sleuths arrested Doley on a tip off from a contractor, who said the bureaucrat had been demanding the bribe to clear his bills pending at the state secretariat 'Janata Bhavan,' said Vigilance officials.

Following the arrest, the sleuths recovered Rs 54 lakh cash from Doley's office and over Rs 11 lakh in cash besides passbooks of six bank accounts, the LIC policies and several other incriminating documents during the subsequent raid at his apartment at Chachal in Guwahati.
According to the contractor, he had proceeded to pay Rs 15,000 to the official out of Rs 80,000 demanded by him after informing the Vigilance sleuths.

Doley had allegedly demanded the hefty bribe to clear nearly 300 payment files in his custody before the year end, the sleuths and contractors claimed.
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal said such crackdown on corrupt government officials in Assam would continue as the new (BJP-led) state government has come with a mandate to prevent corruption in the state.

Last year Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul, members Basanta Kumar Doley and Samedur Rahman, besides Assistant Controller of Examinations Pabitra Kaibarta were arrested on corruption charges.