Rajasthan ACB arrests govt officer for taking bribe

The Rajasthan anti-corruption bureau has arrested a senior government officer for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh and recovered documents, including those of 106 plots and a petrol pump, an official said Sunday.

Sleuths of the bureau also recovered Rs 2.35 crore in cash and documents related to two flats and 10 trucks among others during raids at IRS officer Sahiram Meena's residences in the state, a senior official said.

Meena, the additional commissioner of central narcotics bureau at Kota, was under the bureau's radar for some time, and a team caught him at his residence in Kota on Saturday while taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a middleman Kamlesh for making his father Nandlal the head of opium cultivation licencees in Chittorgarh district, the officer said.

Kamlesh also works as Meena's middleman for extorting money and he along with the IRS officer has been placed under arrest under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the officer said.

The bureau launched search operations on the officer's premises at Kota and Jaipur.

We have, so far, recovered Rs. 2.35 crore in cash, documents of 106 residential plots in the name of Meena, his wife and son, 25 shops, two industrial plots, 5 bigha agriculture land, one petrol pump, one marriage garden, four truck and four cars, one flat in Mumbai and one in Delhi, Director General Anti Corruption Bureau Alok Tripathi told reporters here.

This is a big case. We were doing technical surveillance for some time. Meena and Kamlesh were placed under arrest under the Prevention of Corruption act and will be produced in a court here today, he said.

The ACB teams also recovered documents of 15 bank accounts and details will be sought from banks on Monday.

Tripathi said that income tax, enforcement directorate and other agencies will be informed about the case.