BMC officer caught accepting Rs 1,000 bribe

Sub inspector Rajendra Shahu of the P North ward (Malad) wanted the money to change the complainant's misspelt name

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) yesterday caught a BMC sub inspector redhanded while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 1,000 from the complainant who was seeking to get his name changed on his birth certificate.

According to officials, the complainant had approached a passport agent to file an online petition for his passport, but the agent discovered that the applicant's last name was spelt wrongly. In order to make the change from Upadhya to Upadhayaya, the complainant then approached the BMC where sub inspector Rajendra Shahu of the P North ward (Malad) asked him to produce electricity bills from the last 30 years. Following this, the officer still refused to make the change and then demanded a bribe of Rs 1,000.

The complainant then lodged a case with the bureau following which a trap was laid where Shahu was caught redhanded. "The case is currently under investigation," said Pandurang Shinde, Assistant Commissioner of Police (administration), ACB.