3 power company employees, 1 other person held in Thane for bribery

The Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested an engineer, a technician and a clerk of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company MSEDCL and another man in a case of bribery in Thane district, the ACB said on Tuesday.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested an engineer, a technician and a clerk of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) and another man in a case of bribery in Thane district, the ACB said on Tuesday. On August 14, the 34-year-old assistant engineer of the MSEDCL's Kalyan division took away the power meter of a person's flat in Ambernath area on suspicion of tampering, Thane ACB inspector Hanmant Kshirsagar said in a release. After checking the electricity meter on August 28, the engineer told the person there was a power theft for the last three years and that he would be required to pay an amount of Rs 3 to 4 lakh, including the power consumption charges and penalty. The engineer also told the person that he could reduce the bill amount to Rs 1 lakh for which he allegedly sought a bribe of Rs 75,000 and later brought down the demand to Rs 70,000, the official said. The person did not want to pay the bribe and lodged a complaint with the ACB's Thane unit, he said.

The ACB sleuths laid a trap on Monday and nabbed a 35-year-old man while he allegedly accepted the bribe amount of Rs 70,000 on behalf of the engineer from the complainant near a temple on Kalyan-Badlapur road in Ambernath, the official said. The engineer as well as a junior clerk and a principal technician of the MSEDCL allegedly involved in the crime were also subsequently arrested, he said.

A case was registered against the four accused at Ambernath police station under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, he added.