Contractor Complains, ACB Acts | Range Officer arrested for accepting bribe

Srinagar, Dec 28: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Friday said that it caught a Range Officer while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000.

A statement of the ACB issued here said that it received a written complaint against Mushtaq Ahmad Sofi alleging that the concerned officer was demanding a bribe as a commission of Rs 10,000 for processing his bill for release of due payments.

It said that the complainant alleged that he was a contractor and had completed the allotted work for an amount of Rs 3.21 lakh and that after completing the work, the Forest Department had already released two bills in his favour.

The ACB statement said that however, the final bill of around Rs 1 lakh was pending with the department for the past month and a half for which the concerned Range Officer Mushtaq Ahmad Sofi had demanded a bribe as his commission of Rs 15,000 for all three bills including the two already released bills.

It said that the amount after negotiations with the accused Range Officer was settled on Rs 10,000 and the complainant arranged Rs 10,000 and approached the ACB with a complaint requesting for legal action.