Thane, March 28 Two officials from the irrigation department in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district have been arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from a contractor to release pending payment for work carried out on a dam, an official said on Saturday.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) laid a trap and caught Ganesh Haridas Salgar (36), an executive engineer with the Ratnagiri Irrigation Division at Kuvarbav, and Shekar Chandramani Pawar (39), a junior clerk and typist, accepting the bribe, the official said.
The complainant, a construction company owner, had undertaken work to plug a leak in a dam under a minor irrigation scheme at Bolavli in Mandangad taluka of the district, the ACB said in a release.
While he had received two installments for the work, Rs 11.3 lakh was deducted from the third installment. In an attempt to recover the deducted amount, the complainant approached the department and followed up with the concerned engineer, it stated.
When the accused executive engineer allegedly demanded Rs 3.4 lakh to release the pending payment, the contractor lodged a complaint with the ACB, the official said.
A case has been registered against the duo under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and an investigation is underway, he added.
