Indore (Madhya Pradesh)

Madhya Pradesh Special Police Establishment, Lokayukta, caught three officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh from a road contractor in Indore district, an official said.

The accused have been identified as PWD Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Tarun Kumar Jain, Executive Engineer Jaydev Gautam, and Sub-Engineer Anshu Dubey.

According to officials, the accused had allegedly demanded Rs 3.5 lakh from contractor Rajpal Singh Pawar in exchange for clearing a pending bill of around Rs 30 lakh related to road construction work.

Lokayukta Inspector Ashutosh Mithas said the officials were caught during a coordinated trap operation.

"We have caught three PWD officials for taking bribes, which include Executive Engineer Jaydev Gautam, Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Tarun Kumar Jain and Sub-Engineer Anshu Dubey. Among these, Gautam was caught accepting Rs 1,50,000 and SDO Jain was taking Rs 1,00,000. On the other hand, Sub-Engineer Dubey demanded the sweetener but didn't accept it from the complainant as the amount was less than what he demanded," he said.

Officials said Dubey had allegedly asked for Rs 1 lakh as part of the bribe, but the complainant reportedly offered Rs 50,000, which was not accepted.

"A total of Rs 3,50,000 was demanded as a bribe from the complainant, Rajpal Singh Pawar, who is a government contractor. Pawar had done a project worth around Rs 4.71 crores and he got some of his bill cleared during the project but the final disbursement of the project worth approximately Rs 30,00,000 was pending. In order to get that bill cleared, a bribe of Rs 3,50,000 lakh was demanded," the Lokayukta official added.

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He further stated that Executive Engineer Jaydev Gautam was caught at his official residence after calling the complainant there, while another team apprehended the remaining officials at the PWD office during the operation.

A case has been registered under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act into the matter and further investigation is underway, the Lokayukta official added.