KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Nov 17: Close on the heels of the arrest of Mango thana officer-in-charge Rajiv Ranjan Kumar for taking a bribe of Rs 25,000, a team of the ACB, Jamshedpur on Thursday arrested the Circle Inspector of Nimdih Block in adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district.
The Circle Inspector, Khelaram Murmu, was arrested for taking Rs 5,000 from a local resident Prashant Mahto at the block office itself.
Having arrested the Circle Inspector, the ACB team has brought the accused to its divisional office in Sonari where he is being interrogated further.
According to ACB sources, Mahto who is a resident of Nimdih wanted to get a plot of settled from the Block office. Despite it being a normal procedure, the Circle Inspector demanded Mahto to pay Rs 10,000 for doing him the favour, but the latter was not agreed to pay anything.
The sources said after a hectic negotiation between the two, the bribe amount was settled at Rs 5,000, which Mahto was supposed to pay the accused on Thursday morning. But instead of simply paying the bribe, Mahto contacted the ACB office in Sonari where he lodged a complaint against Murmu.
The ACB sleuths first got the matter verified and asked Mahto to bring Rs 5,000. The sleuths smeared phenolphthalein powder in currency notes of 500 denominations that the complainant had brought along.
On Thursday noon, as Mahto handed cash to the Circle Inspector, the ACB team which was around swooped over the inspector and forced him to dip his fingers into a glass of water. As the water in the glass turned red the team arrested the inspector immediately.
A senior officer in the ACB Jamshedpur said that the arrested Circle Inspector will be put in the Chaibasa divisional jail soon.
