Palghar: A Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Palghar, a naib Tehsildar, and one other person, who were arrested by the Thane Anti Corruption Bureau on Thursday for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs. 50 lakh, were remanded to police custody till November 28 by Vasai court.
Shivaji Dattatreya Davbhat, 46, Manivade Satush Keshav, 57, and Jayesh Dashrath, 25, (Davbhat’s driver) were arrested by the ACB on Thursday after Davbhat was caught accepting the money in old Rs. 500 notes.
The ACB, Thane was approached with complains that Davbhat was demanding money for a favourable ruling in certain cases pertaining to land. The ACB subsequently decided to carry out its operation.
“For some time now we had been in touch with the SDM,” an officer connected with the operation said, “ he agreed to accept the money in old notes of 500.” However, nobody is clear on how the accused was planning to convert the money. “Even we have no clue how he would convert the money,” the official said.
The team involved in the raid used original notes amounting Rs. 3 lakh, and the remaining Rs. 47 lakh in dummy currency. “Each bundle of notes had a couple of original notes at the top and bottom, while the rest of the bundle was fake,” the officer said.
Davbhat is in Thane ACB lock up. “We will be interrogating him from today [Friday],” Additional Superintendent of Police, Kisan Gavali, Thane ACB, said.
Earlier, in October, Anant Baraf, 37, a revenue official from Saja-Sasun, Navghar, Vasai, was arrested accepting a bribe of Rs. 25,000 by the Palghar unit of Thane Anti-Corruption Bureau.
The writer is a freelance journalist
