KDMC civic clerk among two held in Thane for taking Rs 50,000 bribe

A KDMC civic clerk at the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation KDMC in Maharashtras Thane district and a former worker of the civic body have been arrested for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 50000 for a consultant for property tax assessment the AntiCorruption Bureau said reported news agency PTIThe consultant had undertaken the task of handling property tax assessments of some flats in housing societies in the KDMC limitsWhen he applied for the property tax assessments with the KDMC the two including KDMC civic clerk accused allegedly sought Rs 108000 from him for facilitating the assessment process Thane ACB inspector Vilas Mate said in a release on Tuesday reported PTIAfter negotiations the demand was reduced to Rs 50000The consultant approached the Thane ACB unit and filed a complaintThe ACB officials laid a trap at the KDMC ward office in Dombivli on Tuesday and caught the two persons while accepting the bribe amount of Rs 50000 from the complainant the official said reported PTIA case registered against the two accused under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act he saidIn another case the AntiCorruption Bureau ACB has registered an offence against an assistant commissioner of state tax and some other officers of the Maharashtra GST department for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 1 crore from a companys director to settle a pending tax matter an official reported PTIThe offence under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered by the ACB Mumbai unit against Arjun Suryawanshi assistant commissioner of state tax investigation branch and other officers on February 2 the official said on Monday reported PTISection 7 of the anticorruption Act deals with an offence relating to public servant being bribedThe FIR was registered after a letter was written by the special commissioner of state tax and chief vigilance officer to Maharashtra director general of police ACB seeking an investigation into the alleged corruption by officers of the investigation branch of the state tax the official said reported PTIDuring the probe it came to light that Suryawanshi and his team conducted raids between July 5 and August 7 last year on a firm which had an outstanding tax of more than Rs 20 crore said the official reported PTIDespite several reminders the firms director did not pay the pending tax following which the GST department officials visited his office and residence also he saidOn August 21 Suryawanshi allegedly sent a WhatsApp message demanding Rs 1 crore from the firms director to settle the tax matter said the official reported PTIThe bribe demand was confirmed though no money exchanged hands during investigation after which the FIR was registered he said adding further probe was underway reported PTIWith inputs from PTI