Forester, Forest Guard arrested for accepting bribe: ACB

Srinagar, Sep 14: A Forester and a Forest Guard were arrested for accepting a bribe, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said on Saturday.

A statement of the ACB Issued here said that it received a complaint alleging that Forester (BO) Rashpaul Singh, and Forest Guard Avdesh Singh demanded a bribe of Rs 15000 for the release of the bill of the work ‘fencing work, Mawa plantation of Vitex, pit planting, and patch showing in Co 28/K (Kaneli Nallah), Budhi Block Kathua Forest Range for Rs 2,81,290’.

It said that the complainant did not want to pay a bribe and approached ACB to take legal action against the accused under the law.

The ACB statement said that on receipt of the complaint, a discreet verification was conducted, which confirmed the demand for a bribe by the public servants concerned and accordingly, a case FIR No 13/2024 under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 61(2) BNS was registered at Police Station Jammu on September 14, 2024, and an investigation was taken up.

It said that during the investigation, a trap team headed by a DySP rank officer was constituted.

“The team laid a successful trap and accused public servants were caught red-handed while demanding and accepting a bribe amount of Rs 15,000, in the presence of independent witnesses, from the complainant. Both the accused were arrested on the spot by the ACB team after following due process of law.

The bribe money was also recovered from their possession in the presence of independent witnesses associated with the trap team. Moreover, searches were also conducted in the residential houses of both the accused in the presence of independent witness and Magistrate,” the statement said.