Thane: Revenue official, two others held for accepting bribe in Bhiwandi

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A revenue official and two others were arrested for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe to clear compensation for a man who lost his land to a railway project in Bhiwandi of Maharashtra's Thane district, police said.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on February 24 arrested Vitthal Gosavi (54), a nayab tehsildar at the office of the SDO Bhiwandi, private agent Vijay Bhoir (28) and jeweller Laxman Singh Shankar Singh Rajpurohit (52), an official said. The complainant had lost his land to a railway project and was supposed to get a compensation of Rs 55 lakh from the government through the office of the SDO for which he had applied, he said.

Gosavi, who was dealing with the case, demanded Rs 9 lakh from the complainant to clear the amount and later brought down the sum to Rs 6 lakh, he said. The man approached the ACB's Mumbai unit with a complaint, following which a trap was laid at the SDO's office and the official was caught accepting the bribe through the other accused, the official said.

The ACB has recovered 43 signed cheques without names and over Rs 3.73 lakh cash from the accused, he said, adding that further probe is underway.

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