Shruti Suman
A government official working in the revenue department in Katni, Madhya Pradesh, swallowed a bribe of Rs 5,000 after he noticed a team from the Lokayukta’s Special Police Establishment (SPE) in his private office. The incident, which was captured on camera, was reported on Monday when Patwari Gajendra Singh received the bribe. The complaint against him was made by a man from Barkheda village who alleged that the official had demanded a bribe for resolving a property dispute.
After the Lokayukta Jabalpur team conducted a thorough investigation, they arrested Gajendra Singh while he accepted a bribe at his private office in Bilhari. During the arrest, he attempted to swallow the bribe money to hide the evidence. However, he was taken to the hospital and found to be okay.
Similar cases have been reported in the recent past, including the arrest of two Delhi Police head constables by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for demanding bribes related to e-rickshaw charging and parking in Delhi’s Mangolpuri area. Another incident involved a government official in Jharkhand, Mithali Sharma, who was caught on video accepting a bribe in her first posting as an assistant registrar of the cooperative department in Koderma.
In Sharma’s case, she conducted a surprise inspection at the Koderma Vyapar Sahyog Samiti and demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 from the authorities there to avoid taking action against them. After a complaint was filed, the Hazaribagh Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) investigated the matter and arrested her red-handed while accepting the first installment of the bribe. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
