Pune: Section of government officials continues to demand bribes even in Covid era, said Rajesh Bansode, Police Supervisor of the State Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
“Government officials continue to demand bribes regardless of the difficulties faced by people because of the spread of Covid infection in the state and also because of the initial locking of 2021.
It is surprising,” said Bansode.
The Pune unit from ACB put 165 bribery traps in 2021 where government government officials, including 51 private maids they were arrested.
By 2020, ACB has run 139 trap cases, and in 2019, the bureau has registered 185 trap cases.
Bansode said, “From February to May 2021, this nation passed through the brutal phase of Covid-19 infection witnessed many trauma.
People experience a lot of pain and suffering during this period and then the situation gradually becomes normal”.
“We think that over the past four months, there will be fewer cases (bribes), because people explore fewer than their homes and government offices too, functioning with limited employees,” he said.
“Apart from all this, ACB executed 17 trap cases on January 11, in February, 14 in March, five in April and May 12, 2021.
After this, ACB carried out trap cases between 14 and 18 per month,” he said.
In the case of traps, ACB caught nine class I officers, 26 class II officers, 97 class III officers and nine class-IV officers.
ACB also arrested 51 individuals, who received bribes on behalf of government officers.
“Many officers prefer to keep a maid and direct the victims to pay bribes to these people thinking that ACB will only submit cases of these people.
However, before putting a trap, we verify the role of government officials and then people Personally, who accepted bribes.
But both were arrested, “Bansode explained.
Shrihari Patil, police deputy supervisor with ACB, said, “Lockdown was implemented in March 2020, thus, there were fewer cases.
Because of limiting locking lolares, cases increased by 2021, especially in the last four months,” he said.
“In one of the most disappointing cases, an engineer with Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran demanded a RS40,000 bribe to provide water connections to the orphanage.
We arrested him,” Patil said.