Three officials of a local fund audit office in Maharashtra`s Ratnagiri district have been arrested for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 16,500 to manipulate a report, an official said on Saturday, reported news agency PTI.

Acting on a complaint, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday caught assistant director Sharad Raghunath Jadhav (53), assistant audit officer Siddharth Vijay Shetye (45), and Satej Shantaram Ghwali (38), a peon, accepting the bribe money, said Avinash Patil, deputy superintendent of police, ACB, Ratnagiri, reported PTI.

“The trio was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe at the Local Fund Audit Office, Ratnagiri, in the presence of panch witnesses,” he said.

According to the complainant, an assistant audit officer at the Dapoli Panchayat Samiti, the accounts of the local body were under audit for the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22, and 21 issues had been raised, reported PTI.

“Though the compliance report was already submitted in August, the accused allegedly demanded a bribe to prepare the final report excluding the resolved issues,” the official said, reported PTI.

A probe revealed that the accused demanded Rs 16,500 on behalf of Assistant Director Jadhav for excluding 15 out of the 21 pending issues in the audit report, he said.

Three CIDCO staffers among 4 held for bribery in Navi Mumbai

In another case, the ACB has arrested three staffers of the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) and another person for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 3.5 lakh from a housing society secretary in Navi Mumbai, officials said on Thursday, reported PTI.

The 54-year-old complainant, who is the secretary of a cooperative housing society in Vashi, had a dispute with some other elected members of his society`s managing committee.

He and the other members had submitted applications to the deputy registrar of cooperative societies, CIDCO, to dissolve the managing committee while claiming irregularities, Navi Mumbai Anti-Corruption Bureau`s Deputy Superintendent of Police Dharmaraj Sonke said, reported PTI.

To get the result in favour of the complainant, the accused allegedly demanded Rs 5 lakh from him but later lowered the amount to Rs 3.5 lakh, the official said.

After a probe into the complaint, the ACB on Wednesday laid a trap and arrested an office assistant, a cooperative officer and a peon working at the joint registrar`s office, as well as another person in connection with the bribery, the official said, reported PTI.

A case has been registered against the accused under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

(With inputs from PTI)

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