Land record official held for taking Rs 5 lakh bribe

A senior official of land record department was arrested here for allegedly accepting Rs Five lakh bribe from a complainant, Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials said today.
Deputy director of land records, Dadasaheb Talpe had demanded Rs Five lakh to decide a dispute of ownership record in favour of a well-known city builder through his lawyer, who later lodged a complaint with the ACB.
The builder N Kumar, through his company Kumar Hotel Ltd, had purchased a portion of a property at a city locality in 2001. He had purchased rest of the property through his another company, Link House Industries in 2004.

In 2010-11, the land owner, S Sonone, lodged a complaint with the Deputy director pointing out that he did not sell his property to any of the companies and mutation of the record should be rejected.
Sonone's application was challenged by Kumar through his lawyer in 2012.
A senior class I officer of state government service, Talpe first made the bribe demand on December 10 last year saying he would not give a decision until Rs Five lakh was paid. The demand was reiterated before the builder's lawyer once again on February 18, the officials said.
Later, the builder's lawyer approached Nagpur ACB which laid a trap yesterday and caught Talpe red-handed.

The accused's house in city and another residence in Pune were also searched by the ACB.