| Staff REPORTER |
ITANAGAR, Feb 12: In a ‘first’, Arunachal Pradesh’s anti-corruption agency, Special Investigation Cell (Vigilance) on Monday caught a State Government official red-handed for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a contractor for renewal of licence.
SIC (Vigilance) SP Anant Mittal while interacting with the media said that the anti-graft agency today carried out its maiden trap case and arrested a state government official in broad daylight for demanding and accepting bribes.
The arrested official has been identified as Chandra Kumar Singh, a junior engineer with the Public Works Department (PWD), Western Zone, and a resident of Hailakandi, Assam.
The SP said that a case (No. 12/2024) under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 has been registered against the officer, who is currently under police custody.
He informed that the operation was carried out after receipt of a formal complaint from Nabam Tangu. “The complainant wanted to renew his (contractor) licence but the officer had demanded Rs 50,000 for the work,” he said.
Calling the trap case very complex and technical, Mittal said that the accused, during the operation, was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe.
“In such cases, the transaction between the complainant and the suspect is recorded by electronic and chemical means which is presented to the court as evidence. Trap cases have a good track record with 90 percent conviction,” he disclosed.
Mittal lauded inspectors Bomchu Krong and Mipak Riba for the meticulous plan to carry out the operation successfully.
Maintaining that the case is going to be a precedent setting movement against corruption in the state, the SP hoped that such trap operations would continue to be executed in the days to come.