Maharashtra: Tehsil office accountant held by ACB for bribery in Gondia

The Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau arrested an accountant in the tehsil office in Gondia on Thursday for allegedly seeking and accepting a bribe from a health worker reported PTI citing an ACB officialThe accused indentified as Suresh Ramkishore Sharnagat 36 was an accountant on contractual basis at the tehsil health office in Gondias Goregaon area As per the PTI report he had sought Rs 3000 to clear the complainants incentive arrears of Rs 16500 Inspector Atul Tawade saidSharnagat was held while accepting Rs 2500 from the complainant in a trap laid by the ACB A case under Prevention of Corruption Act has been filed at Goregaon police station he said reported PTIIn another incident the AntiCorruption Bureau ACB had booked an assistant commissioner of state tax and some other officers of the Maharashtra GST department allegedly for demanding a bribe of Rs 1 crore from a companys director to settle a pending tax matter officials saidThe AntiCorruption Bureau registered the case under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Arjun Suryawanshi the assistant commissioner of state tax investigation branch and other officers on February 2 newswire PTI reportedSection 7 of the act deals with an offence related to a 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 officials saidDuring 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 officialDespite 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 officialThe bribe demand was confirmed though no money exchanged hands during investigation after which the FIR was registered he said adding further probe was underwayMeanwhile unidentified men allegedly stole the control unit of an electronic voting machine EVM and some stationery from the office of a revenue official in Maharashtras Pune districtA CCTV footage of the theft has surfaced on social mediaThe incident occurred at the office of a tehsildar in Saswad on February 3 an official saidThe control unit of an EVM machine and some paper reels were stolen We have deployed teams to nab the three men involved in the theft Superintendent of Police Pune Rural Pankaj Deshmukh saidA case has been registered at Saswad police station he said With inputs from PTI