Jammu: A revenue officer was caught red-handed by the Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) while taking a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from a tout for issuing documents of a plot of land here, a spokesman of Bureau said.
Naib Tehsildar Ashok Sharma was arrested on Thursday night and the bribe money of Rs 1.5 lakh was recovered from his possession. Besides Rs 9 lakh were recovered from the tout, Raman Gupta’s possession, he said.
The spokesman said that ACB received a complaint against Ashok Sharma, Naib Tehsildar and his associates for demanding a bribe of Rs 25 lakh for issuing fard.
“The complainant alleged that he had applied for issuance of fard in respect of land in the name of his wife measuring 1 kanal 19 marlas under khasra No. 440/299 situated at Mawa Karora, Sungal Morh, Akhnoor before then patwari Halqa Akhnoor Khas namely Ravinder Bhagat. The patwari Ravinder Bhagat and Naib Tehsildar, Ashok Sharma who were at that time posted in the area, approached the complainant through their tout Raman Gupta and asked for a bribe of Rs 30 lakh for the issuance of the fard,” said the spokesman.
The duo contacted the complainant and negotiated the amount to Rs 25 lakh, he said.
Thereafter, both Patwari and the Naib Tehsildar were transferred out of that place, but the amount of Rs 25 lakh was still being demanded by Naib Tehsildar from the complainant in instalments, first instalment being of Rs 1.5 lakh.
A digital copy of the land document was given to the complainant but the Naib Tehsildar retained the hard copy and demanded Rs 25 lakh to handover the original documents to the complainant.
On this, the complainant approached ACB for appropriate action against the officials.
The ACB registered a case and laid a trap during which Sharma, presently posted at Gharota, was caught while accepting the bribe, the spokesman said.
Searches were also conducted in the residents of all the accused persons and Rs 9 lakh was seized from Gupta’s possession, said the spokesman.
