Mumbai, February 14 Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal has alleged that a senior official in Minister Narhari Zirwal's office directed the bribery, which led to the arrest of a clerk at Mantralaya this week.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday caught a clerk from the Food and Drug Administration department red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 35,000 at the state secretariat, Mantralaya, prompting the Congress to attack the BJP-led government in the state.
According to the ACB, the clerk, Rajendra Dherange, was caught while taking a bribe at the FDA office on the second floor of Mantralaya. He had allegedly demanded the money from a complainant who wanted his medical license to be restored.
Sapkal, in a post on X on Friday, alleged that the clerk arrested in the case had told the police that he was acting on the instructions of a senior official in the department.
He questioned whether the senior official was Zirwal's private secretary and whether the concerned official would be arrested.
Sapkal claimed that the complainant and Dherange had, in their statements, said that a senior officer had directed them to take the bribe.
"Is it true that this senior officer is the minister's private secretary? If so, when will he be arrested?" Sapkal said, questioning the government's alleged inaction.
Zirwal on Friday said he would resign if any link is established between him and a clerk from his department.
