Assam: Two government employees arrested for accepting bribes

Morigaon (Assam) [India], June 27 : The sleuths of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, Assam on Monday caught red-handed and arrested two government employees in separate operations while they accepted a bribe, police said.

The arrested government employees were identified as Nabajyoti Nath, Lot Mandal of Office of the Circle Officer, Morigaon Revenue Circle in Morigaon district and Sabibar Rahman, Junior Engineer of Office of the Block Development Officer, Debitola Development Block, Kazigaon in Kokrajhar district.

According to the Assam Police, a complaint was received at the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, Assam, alleging that Nabajyoti Nath, Lot Mandal of Office of the Circle Officer, Morigaon Revenue Circle, District - Morigaon demanded Rs 30,000 as a bribe from the complainant for processing Namjari works of the complainant.

Later, the Lot Mandal had reduced the bribe amount to Rs 25,000. Rajib Saikia, CPRO of Assam police said that unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the Directorate for taking necessary legal action against the public servant.

"Accordingly, a trap was laid today, on Monday by a team from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, Assam. Nabajyoti Nath was caught red-handed immediately after he accepted Rs 15,000 as part of demanded bribe from the complainant. The tainted bribe money has been recovered from his possession and has been seized accordingly in the presence of independent witnesses. Finding sufficient evidence against the accused public servant, he has been arrested by the Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption team, Assam. In this connection, a case has been registered in ACB Police Station on June 26, under Section 7(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) against Nabajyoti Nath," Rajib Saikia said.

In a separate Incident, a complaint was received at the Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption, Assam, alleging that Sabibar Rahman, Junior Engineer of Office of the Block Development Officer, Debitola Development Block, Kazigaon, District - Kokrajhar, BTAD demanded Rs 15,000 as bribe from the complainant for releasing his bills.

"Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the Directorate for taking necessary legal action against the public servant. Accordingly, a trap was laid today, on June 26 by a team from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, Assam. Sabibar Rahman was caught red-handed immediately after he accepted Rs 5,000 as part of demanded bribe from the complainant. The tainted bribe money has been recovered from his possession and has been seized accordingly in presence of independent witnesses. Finding sufficient evidence against the accused public servant, he has been arrested by the team of the Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption, Assam," Rajib Saikia said.

In this connection, a case has been registered at ACB Police Station on June 26, under Section 7(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) against Sabibar Rahman. Necessary legal follow-up action is underway.