**Indore EOW Catches Two IMC Officials Red-Handed Accepting Bribe of Rs 40,000**
*Indore (Madhya Pradesh):* The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Indore has caught two officials of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 on Friday.
The accused officials have been identified as Puneet Agrawal, Assistant Revenue Officer (ARO), Zone-19, and Rohit Sable, In-charge Bill Collector, Revenue Department, Zone-19.
The case came to light when Santosh Silawat, a scrap dealer and resident of Geeta Nagar, lodged a complaint with EOW SP Rameshwar Yadav on Wednesday. Silawat reported that his warehouse had been sealed by the revenue department after a notice was pasted by the IMC officials. To reopen the sealed warehouse and settle pending property tax, the officials allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 1,00,000, which was later reduced to Rs 50,000, and finally they agreed to accept Rs 40,000.
Acting on the complaint, EOW officials conducted a thorough verification. After confirming the evidence, they formed a trap team to catch the accused red-handed. During the operation, upon receiving a pre-decided signal from the complainant while handing over the bribe money, the EOW team immediately raided the IMC Zone-19 office in Pipliyahana and caught both officials with the bribe amount in their possession.
An FIR has been registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 61(2) of the BNS. Further investigation and interrogation of the accused are currently underway.
The trap operation was led by DSPs Kanhaiyalal Dangi and Sanjay Dwivedi, along with Inspectors Kailashchandra Patidar, Amod Singh Rathore, Harish Verma, and other officers including Swatantra Kumar Gautam, Ajay Choube, Ajay Solanki, Vishal Kumar Bhayre, Pradeep Mishra, Neelam Kushwah, Yogendra Thakur, and Rahul Singh.
### Additional Rs 1,13,000 Cash Seized from Accused
EOW SP Rameshwar Yadav stated that during the raid at the Zone-19 office in Pipliyahana, while seizing the bribe amount of Rs 40,000, the team also recovered an additional Rs 1,13,000 in cash from the same briefcase. The accused failed to provide any satisfactory explanation for the source of this additional cash.
In total, Rs 1,53,000 was seized from the accused officials. They will be required to explain the source of the extra money in court.
Officials suspect that the additional Rs 1,13,000 was also received through bribes, most likely for settling other pending property tax cases.
*— Story by Staff Reporter*
https://www.freepressjournal.in/indore/indore-news-eow-nabs-indore-municipal-corporation-duo-accepting-40k-bribe