Assistant Regional Transport Officer held in bribery case; Rs 65,000 found in pocket

Nagpur, Oct 17 (PTI) The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday arrested an Assistant Regional Transport Officer (ARTO) and a junior clerk at the Nagpur Rural RTO office for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe.

ACB officials also recovered Rs 65,000 in cash stuffed in the official's pant pocket.

The arrested men were identified as ARTO Anup Sanap and clerk Mohan Divate.

A truck owner, who was facing a penalty of Rs 50,750 for overloading, had complained that when he visited the RTO office to get his vehicle released, Sanap and Divate demanded a bribe of Rs 5,000 to bypass the legal procedure.

He negotiated the amount down to Rs 4,000 while simultaneously informing the ACB. The bureau laid a trap and caught Divate red-handed while accepting Rs 4,000.

Upon interrogation, he admitted that the bribe was taken on instructions from ARTO Sanap. Following this, Sanap was also arrested, and was found be carrying Rs 65,000 in his pocket.

ACB officials are probing whether the cash forms part of a larger, possibly routine, illegal collection handled by Sanap on behalf of senior officers.

"This is the third trap at the Nagpur Rural RTO this year," an ACB officer said, adding that senior officers will be questioned. PTI COR KRK