Guj: police official held for bribery, another cop at large

An assistant sub-inspector ofpolice and another person have been arrested while accepting abribe of Rs 4.5 lakh from a Surat-based businessman, theGujarat Anti-Corruption Bureau said on Friday.

ASI Mahadev Sevaikar, attached to the Range OperationsGroup, Surat Rural Police, was arrested while another accusedpolice official is yet to be nabbed.

Sevaikar and Vipul Balar, an alleged middleman, werecaught red-handed while taking bribe in Pipodara industrialarea on Thursday, the ACB said.

A businessman had approached the ACB allegeing thatSevaikar and head constable Dipesh Mesuriya were demanding Rs2 lakh each for not harassing him.

They had claimed that his oil trading business wasillegal and threatened to shut it down if he did noy pay them,the complainant alleged.

The duo had asked him to hand over the money to Balar,and Balar demanded another Rs 50,000 when the businessmancontacted him, said the ACB release.

The ACB laid a trap at Balar's office in Pipodara onThursday and caught him and Sevaikar while accepting Rs 4.5lakh while search was on for constable Mesuriya, the ACB said.