bribe
Navi Mumbai: In a shocking embarrassment for the education administration, the Divisional Chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), Mumbai Division, Rajendra Ahire (55), was arrested by the Navi Mumbai Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) after being caught red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 22,000 inside his cabin at the Board’s Vashi office on Tuesday.
According to ACB Deputy SP Dharmaraj Sonake, the arrest followed a complaint by a contractor who had been awarded an electrical maintenance contract for the State Board office building in Vashi for a one-year period from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026. The contractor alleged that Ahire demanded a 7% “commission” amounting to Rs 22,176 to clear a bill of Rs 3.16 lakh for maintenance work carried out between November 2025 and February 2026.
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Investigators said the demand was allegedly routed through Manohar Pawar, head of the stores department, who acted as a conduit between the contractor and the senior official. After the complaint was lodged on March 25, the ACB conducted a verification on April 6 which confirmed the bribe demand.
Acting swiftly, the anti-corruption team laid a trap on April 7 at the State Board office building in Vashi. Ahire was allegedly caught red-handed while accepting the bribe money from the complainant inside his cabin. An FIR has been registered against him at Vashi police station under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The arrest has triggered serious questions about corruption within the education board’s administrative machinery, especially as the same official had earlier projected himself as a whistleblower in another alleged scam.
In February this year, Ahire himself had lodged a complaint that led to an FIR against retired Deputy Director of Education Nitin Upasani and 18 others. The case accused them of cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust in connection with a major Shalarth ID scam involving two educational institutions in Alibaug and Khopoli.
According to Ahire’s complaint, forged documents were allegedly used to create Shalarth IDs for teachers who were then recruited illegally and allowed to draw government salary grants. The alleged fraud dates back to August 2018, when Upasani was serving as the Vashi Divisional Chairman of the MSBSHSE.
Officials claimed that through these fabricated appointments, the accused siphoned off nearly Rs 1.25 crore in government salary grants.
Ironically, the arrest of Ahire in a bribery case has now cast a shadow over the credibility of the administration itself, raising uncomfortable questions about corruption and accountability within the state’s education board system.
