Assam: Govt employee arrested for taking bribe

Guwahati (Assam), October 19 (ANI): The sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption of Assam Police on Wednesday caught red-handed a government employee for accepting a bribe in Dibrugarh district. A tout was also arrested during the operation.
The arrested government employee was identified as Ditimoni Gogoi, Junior Assistant in the office of the District Transport Officer (DTO), Dibrugarh and the tout (Dalal) as Pankaj Saikia alias Gogoi.
CPRO of Assam police, Rajib Saikia, said that a complaint was received at the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, alleging that a Junior Assistant in the office of the Dibrugarh DTO Ditimoni Gogoi, had demanded Rs 700 for facilitating the complainant with offline payment of Road Tax.
"Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the Directorate for taking necessary legal action against the public servant. Accordingly, a trap was laid on Wednesday by a team from Assam's Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption inside the Dibrugarh office of the DTO. Pankaj Saikia alias Gogoi was caught red-handed immediately after he received an amount of Rs 700 from the complainant," Rajib Saikia said.
He also said that Pankaj Saikia received the amount at the behest of Ditimoni Gogoi.
Saikia is not a public servant and investigation so far reveals that he is a tout (Dalal).
The bribe amount was recovered from the possession of Pankaj Saikia alias Gogoi and seized in the presence of independent witnesses.
"House searches at the places of stay of both the persons are going on. A large number of documents like driving licences, registration certificates, ownership transfer certificates, application forms for learner's licences, driving licence renewal forms and application forms for the issue of duplicate certificates of registration have been recovered along with several other documents during the search of the house of Pankaj Saikia," the CPRO of Assam police said.
A case has been registered in ACB Police Station under section 120(B) IPC R/W sec 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018), in this connection.
Both Ditimoni Gogoi and Pankaj Saikia have been apprehended in connection with the case and necessary legal follow-up actions are underway.
On the other hand, GP Singh, Special DGP, Assam said that, since May 10 last year, the Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption has arrested 63 persons including 61 public servants and registered 55 cases related to accepting bribes.
"In this year, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption has arrested 50 persons including 48 public servants and registered 44 cases," GP Singh said. (ANI)