In a rare occurrence known as a ‘reverse trap’, the Palghar unit of the State Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested a 58-year-old lawyer for allegedly offering a bribe to an officer with the Manor police.
In ACB terms, a government servant is considered as ‘trapped’ when he is caught red-handed accepting a bribe in a scenario set up by the ACB. A ‘reverse trap’, on the other hand, is one where a civilian offers a bribe to a government servant, and the latter registers a complaint with the ACB. Officials said as much as they would like it to be otherwise, reverse trap cases are few and far between as opposed to scores of normal trap cases every day.
Officials with ACB’s Palghar unit said they received the complaint against advocate Rajay Gaikwad on Thursday. “Mr. Gaikwad and another woman were accused in a case of outraging a woman’s modesty registered by the Manor police earlier this month. The complainant, who is at officer level, stated in his complaint that they offered him ₹50,000 in exchange for going easy on them and for harassing the complainant,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Kalgonda Hegaje, Palghar ACB, said.
The ACB then set about verifying the complainant’s claims. In multiple conversations between Mr. Gaikwad and the complainant, which were monitored by the ACB, Mr. Gaikwad allegedly offered up to ₹5 lakh to the complainant. He also promised to pay ₹50,000 as “goodluck”, a slang used to denote “token amount” or “goodwill payment”, which is basically a first instalment paid as a show of good faith.
Acting on the ACB’s instructions, the complainant expressed willingness to accept the bribe, and they agreed to meet at the Manor police station on Friday.
“Around 3.25 p.m. on Friday, Mr. Gaikwad handed over the bribe to the complainant, after which our personnel arrested him and charged him under the Prevention of Corruption Act. While the complainant had named Mr. Gaikwad and the female accused in his complaint, we have only arrested the former as our inquiries have only established his involvement in the offence,” Mr. Hegaje said.
