GUWAHATI:
Sleuths of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (VAC) arrested a forester and a forest guard for accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from an individual for regularising a forest case in his name from Assam’s Kokrajhar district on September 9.
Forester (Grade II) Kamini Narzary working in the office of the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) at Kachugaon Forest Division in Gossaingaon, had demanded Rs 40,000 as a bribe from an individual for regularising a forest case. Later, the bribe amount was reduced to Rs 35,000 by the forester.
“A trap was laid by a team of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption officials at Padma Beel area under Gossaingaon police station. Forester Kamini Narzary and forest guard Prabin Brahma (both from the DFO office) were caught red-handed at noon, from a Dhaba named Mongolian Dhaba, soon after they accepted the demanded bribe from the individual and were counting the bribe amount of Rs 20,000,” an official statement from Assam Police read.
“The bribe money has been recovered from their possession and has been seized in presence of independent witnesses,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, a case has been registered in ACB Police Station under section 7(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) and section 120B IPC in this connection.