Mumbai: Two senior government officials, including an IAS officer, arrested on Saturday evening for accepting a bribe of ₹12 lakh were produced in a special court in Thane on Sunday. The court remanded them in police custody till April 19.
Milind B. Gawade (54) an IAS officer working as an additional tribal commissioner, Palghar, and his deputy in the tribal development department, Kiran Sukhlal Mali (39) were arrested by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), Palghar. A senior ACB official told The Hindu that an additional ₹11.9 lakh was found in the office cupboards of the officials during a brief search.
Teams from ACB conducted searches at the residences of the officials on Sunday. “Our searches are on. Nothing can be said as of now,” said Ajay Aphale, deputy superintendent, ACB, Palghar. He did not rule out the possibility of filing disproportionate assets cases against the accused. “We will decide on that after concluding the searches and making an assessment of their properties and investments,” Mt. Aphale added.
On March 31, 12 employees of the state-run Ashram Shalas had lodged a complaint accusing Gawade of demanding ₹12 lakh, one lakh from each of them. These employees had been promoted as rector from the post of superintendent a couple of years ago. According to the ACB, Gawade had been threatening to demote them if they failed to pay the bribe.
The ACB filed an FIR, and nabbed Mali red-handed while he was accepting the money. Gawade was arrested following Mali’s revelations.
