Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday arrested a cashier while demanding and accepting a bribe in Sopore township of Jammu Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
ACB in a statement said that it received a complaint against one Mohammad Shafi Bhat senior Assistant Cashier in the office of the Executive Engineer, Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited (KPDCL), Sub Transmission Division Sopore, alleging therein the demand of bribe of Rs10,000 for release of security amount to the tune of Rs15560.
It was alleged by the complainant that he is running a Firm M/S Print Plus at Hazratbal Srinagar and in 2021 he had supplied stationary items and log books to the office of Executive Engineer, KPDCL, Sopore for which the Bill payment against the supplied items was made by the Department but the security deposit amount of Rs 15,560 remaining pending.
The complainant further alleged that he approached the Department for the release of the security amount many times but the cashier Shafi kept delaying the same on one pretext or another and finally demanded Rs 10000 as a bribe for releasing the payment.
Under these circumstances, the complainant approached ACB with a written complaint requesting for legal action against the Cashier.
As the contents of the complaint prima facie disclose the commission of offence punishable under section 7 of the P.C Act 1988 (r/w its amendment Act 2018) by the accused public servant, accordingly a Case under section 7 of the P.C Act 1988 (r/w its amendment Act 2018) was registered at Police Station, ACB, Baramulla and investigations were initiated.
During investigations, the accused public servant was caught red-handed while demanding and accepting the bribe from the complainant by a specially constituted team of ACB.
He was immediately taken into custody after completing the legal formalities; the bribe amount was also recovered from his possession in presence of independent witnesses.
Further investigations in the case are going on, the statement added.
