Three govt staffers held in Ratnagiri for accepting Rs 16,500 bribe to manipulate audit report

Thane, Sep 13 (PTI) 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.

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.

"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.

"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.

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. PTI COR ARU