Chhattisgarh Corruption Crackdown: Local Officials Arrested

A janpad panchayat accountant and a village revenue officer were arrested in Chhattisgarh for seeking and accepting bribes. Identified as Satyendra Sinha and Virendra Pandey, the two were caught while soliciting bribes of Rs 19,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively and were held under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

A janpad panchayat accountant and a village revenue officer were arrested in Chhattisgarh's Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur and Surguja districts on Friday on allegations of seeking and accepting bribes, according to a senior official from the Anti Corruption Bureau.

The officials identified are Satyendra Sinha, an assistant grade-II (accountant) from Manendragarh janpad panchayat, and Virendra Pandey, a village revenue officer from Bhittikala village in Surguja district.

Sinha was caught red-handed accepting Rs 19,000 from a sarpanch to clear a Rs 2.88 lakh bill for street light installations. Pandey sought Rs 5,000 from a man for making an entry in the revenue record book related to a plot of land. Both were detained under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.