CSMC land acquisition officer held for taking bribe of Rs 50K

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Anti-corruption Bureau nabbed Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Commissioner (CSMC) special land acquisition officer demanding Rs 2 lakh and accepting Rs 50,000 from it red-handed for implementing the orders of Aurangabad division bench of Bombay High Court. The accused officer has been identified as Vinod Moritam Pandit (36) on Monday.

According to the sources, Pandit worked as a land acquisition officer, special group class two of the Town planning and value assessment department in the municipal corporation. The corporation had acquired the hereditary land of the 48-year-old complainant woman for the expansion of the road. She approached the High Court and the court issued the verdict in her favor. Corporation was ordered to pay compensation to the complainant for acquiring the land.

Her file was transferred to the land acquisition department for further procedure. When the file came to Pandit, he demanded Rs 2 lakh for implementing the order of the court. He told her that the work will be done immediately and the compensation will be released if she pays the amount.

However, the complainant was not willing to give the bribe, hence she lodged a complaint with ACB. The ACB laid a trap on Monday and arrested Pandit red-handed while accepting Rs 50,000 as the advance of the total bribe amount.

The action was executed under the guidance of SP Sandeep Atole, additional SP Vishal Khambe, deputy SP Maruti Pandit by PI Nandkishor Kshirsagar, head constable Ashok Nagargoje, Ravindra Kale, Vilas Chavan, Kapil Gadekar, Chandrakant Shinde and others.