Nagpur: In a major clean-up action, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Sunday (October5) hooked a Motor Vehicle Inspector of RTO Nagpur Rural red-handed while demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 200. The ACB also trapped two more persons who were acting as middlemen (Dalals) and collecting the bribe money at the Inspector’s behest. The RTO Inspector was found not only taking bribe of Rs 200-500 from every passing vehicle at a check-post but was denting Government coffers by not issuing any official receipt. All the three accused have been put under arrest.
According to ACB, the complainant was driving truck (CG-04/JB 3626), belonging to Rajaram Yadav, since the past one and a half year. The complainant driver transports goods on Nagpur-Jabalpur and Lucknow-Allahabad routes on regular basis. The goods loaded on the truck are checked at RTO Check-Post at Kandri on Nagpur-Jabalpur Road. During the check-up the weight of goods is measured. However, according to complaint, the RTO Inspector and other employees at Kandri Check-Post often demand and accept Rs 200-500 on the force of threat of challan and did not issue any official receipt. Fed up with the illegal practice, the driver approached ACB and lodged a complaint in this connection on Saturday (October 4).
Acting on the complaint, the ACB sleuths laid a trap at Kandri Check-Post. During the trap, a private person (middleman) Ashok Patil was found demanding Rs 200 from the complainant for not issuing challan while another private person (middleman) Kishore Warkhede accepting Rs 200 on behalf of RTO Inspector Chandrashekhar Meshram. At the same time, the ACB sleuths caught the three accused red-handed while demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 200. Later, when the ACB sleuths inspected the cash box of Check-Post, they found Rs 1,01,050 unaccounted money. Subsequently, an offence was registered with Ramtek Police Station against RTO Inspector Chandrashekhar Meshram, the two middlemen Ashok Patil and Kishore Warkhede under Sections 8, 10, 13(1)(D) of the IPC and Sub-Section 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. All the accused were placed under arrest.
The action was initiated by Deputy Superintendent of Police Sanjay Purandare, Deputy Superintendent of Police Milind Totre, PI Ashok Sakharkar, PI Vinod Dighore, Constables Vilas Khanke, Santosh Pundkar, Ajay Yadav, Nilesh Barve, Dinesh Adhapure under the guidance of Superintendent of Police Prakash Jadhav.
