bansode: Govt Officials Demanded Bribe Despite Covid: Acb | Pune News – Times of India

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PUNE: A section of government officials continued to demand bribe even in the times of Covid, said Rajesh Bansode, the superintendent of police of the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
“Government officials continued to demand bribes despite the hardships faced by people because of the spread of Covid infection in the state and also due to the lockdown early 2021. This is shocking,” said Bansode.

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The Pune unit of the ACB laid 165 bribe traps in 2021 in which 201 government officials, including their 51 private aides, were arrested. In 2020, the ACB had executed 139 trap cases, and in 2019, the bureau had registered 185 trap cases.
Bansode said, “From February to May 2021, the nation went through a brutal phase of Covid-19 infection witnessing a lot of trauma. People went through a lot of pain and agony during this period and then the situation gradually became normal”.
“We thought that during these four months, there would be fewer (bribery) cases, as people were venturing out less from their houses and government offices, too, were functioning with limited employees,” he said.
“Despite all these, the ACB executed 17 trap cases in January, 11 in February, 14 in March, five in April and 12 in May 2021. Following this, the ACB executed trap cases between 14 and 18 per month,” he said.
In the trap cases, the ACB arrested nine Class-I officers, 26 Class-II officers, 97 Class-III officers and nine Class-IV officers. The ACB also arrested 51 individuals, who accepted bribes on behalf of the government officers.
“Many officers prefer to keep aides and direct the victims to pay bribes to these people thinking that the ACB will file cases against these persons only. However, before laying a trap, we verify the role of the government officials and then the private person, who accepts the bribe. But both are arrested,” Bansode explained.
Shrihari Patil, the deputy superintendent of police with the ACB, said, “The lockdown was implemented in March 2020, thus, there were fewer cases. As lockdown restrictions were eased, cases increased in 2021, especially in its last four months,” he said.
“In one of the most disheartening cases, an engineer with Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran demanded bribe of Rs40,000 to provide water connection to an orphanage. We arrested him,” Patil said.

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