Ranjit Mahanti
THE Anti-corruption bureau (ACB), Thane have arrested three officials on Thursday in two different occasions (traps). The three people arrested are Prithvi Valecha, who is a Councilor of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Manoj Tarani, Town Planner and Sanjay Pawar the junior engineer.
According to an official from ACB in first trap Valecha was caught while accepting a bribe of Rs. 25,000. He is a Councilor from ward no 15 (A) in Ulhasnagar. The complainant Deepak Mulchandani is a businessman in Ulhasnagar-2. He was looking forward to re-construct his residence.
Valecha, being the councilor from the same area demanded a bribe of 60,000 to give up protection to the work. Mulchandani who was not willing to give bribe filed a complaint on March 5 against Valecha. After a long bargain amount was settled to Rs. 35,000. ACB arrested Valecha while he was accepting Rs 25,000 the first installment from Mulchandani.
In the second trap the ACB officials caught town planner (TP) Manoj Tarani and junior engineer (JE) Sanjay Pawar. The accused were demanding a bribe of Rs. 50,000 to release the Commencement Certificate (CC) to the complainant. The complainant is a businessman and owns a bungalow in the area. The ACB arrested both the accused around 5pm from Venus Talkies Chowk, Ulhasnagar.