Senior officer booked for demanding Rs 2.70 lakh bribe in Guj

ACB has registered an FIR against Resident Additional Collector (RAC) of Panchmahal district for allegedly demanding bribe of Rs 2.70 lakh for extending an official favour.
The ACB also booked five others, including the RAC's personal assistant, a junior revenue official, a land dealer and his agent, and a middleman on the graft charge.
"Apart from the RAC M K Patadiya, the agency has also booked his Personal Assistant Pritesh Chavda and four others under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act," said police inspector of ACB M J Christian.
Among the four are land dealer Bharat Suthar, his agent Anand Dalwadi, Talathi (revenue officer) of Baska village Lalit Kumar and a middleman Latif Bhatuk.

"Out of the six persons named in the FIR, we have arrested Chavda and Dalwadi. We are yet to arrest Patadiya who demanded Rs 2.70 lakh to issue a certificate to complainant Omprakash Khandelwal" said Christian.
As per the FIR, Khandelwal, a resident of Halol in Panchmahal district, applied for a certificate under Tenancy Act for his land, which he wanted to convert for industrial use.

"Though he applied for the certificate in March 2015, Khandelwal alleged that Patadiya did not issued the same for five months and demanded Rs 2.70 lakh as bribe when Khandelwal met him. Patadiya's PA instructed Khandelwal to pay the money if he wanted to get the certificate" the officer said.

Instead of giving money directly to him, Patadiya allegedly instructed Khandelwal to give it to Bhatuk who worked as a middleman. In addition to this bribe, Kumar also demanded his share from the complainant, said Christian.
"Though we laid a trap to nab the culprits red-handed during October last year, all the accused somehow knew about it and never called Khandelwal to deliver the money. However, since the bribe was demanded, we lodged an FIR yesterday and arrested two accused," said Christian.