Somendra Sharma
A senior government official was arrested on Tuesday after he was caught by sleuths of the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) while accepting a bribe of Rs20,000 from a person who had sought a licence for a company in Andheri.
The arrested man, identified by police as Jayendra Motghare, is an additional director of the industrial safety and health department, the office of which is in Commerce Centre building near the Tardeo air-conditioned market in Central Mumbai. The department issues safety licences to factories.
The person who was asked to pay the bribe works for Dynamics Chain Manufacturing Private Limited, located in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area in Andheri (East).
He had applied for a security-related licence from the department. In July, Motghare carried out surveillance of the company's factory and asked the victim to meet him at his Tardeo office.
"Motghare told the victim that his factory did not have a canteen and had workers in excess of the rules. He then allegedly demanded Rs1.30 lakh from the man to issue the requisite licence," additional police commissioner (ACB) Niket Kaushik said.
On October 29, the company official approached the ACB, after which the agency began investigating the case, Kaushik said. ACB sleuths learnt that Motghare had demanded Rs1.30 lakh from the official but agreed to settle for Rs95,000. He had also asked the official to pay the first instalment of Rs20,000.
"Accordingly, a trap was laid at Motghare's office and he was arrested while accepting the first instalment," Kaushik said. Motghare will be produced in court on Wednesday for police custody.