Jamshedpur, Dec. 16: Anti corruption bureau (ACB) sleuths nabbed an executive engineer of minor irrigation department while accepting Rs 1 lakh as bribe at his office in Chakradharpur in West Singhbhum district on Friday morning.
The accused, Shailendra Kumar Mandal, (52) who was posted in the Waterways division of the minor irrigation department was arrested soon after and taken to the ACB’s divisional office in Jamshedpur.
Deputy superintendent of police, ACB, Amar Pandey said that Mondal was caught at about 10.30 am when he was about to sign a tender agreement of a minor irrigation project with Gaurav Singh, proprietor of Baba Sai Construction.
” We had received complaints and decided to nab the officer red handed.
The Baba Sai Construction, a Chakradharpur-based construction firm, had bagged the tender for this project worth Rs 33 lakh as the firm was the lowest bidder. But for giving the work order for the job, the executive engineer had asked Singh to pay him 10 percent of the total estimated value of the project. Singh had, however, enticed the executive engineer to pay Rs 1 lakh during the signing of the agreement,” said Pandey.
Pandey, who led a six-member ACB team, said that the proprietor of the Baba Sai Construction had beforehand informed the ACB about the bride deal with executive engineer and also informed about the venue and time about the payment of the bribe.
” We prepared our self for the mission. On getting confirmed about the bribing affair, we asked the firm’s proprietor to pay the bribe and had also provided a chemical powder to be smeared in the currency notes to be given to the executive engineer. As he handed over the cash to the executive engineer, we raided the office and caught him red-handed,” said the DSP.
Pandey further said that soon after they made the executive engineer to dip his hands in a glass of water and as he did so, the water turned red.
” It was enough proof for us as soon as the water in the glass turned red, we immediately took the executive engineer under custody and seized the cash.
After doing some formality, we took the accused to our divisional office in Sonari,” added the DSP (ACB).