Assam Civil Service officer held on graft charges; over Rs 1.66 cr in cash seized

An Assam Civil Service officer, Lachit Kumar Das, has been arrested on graft charges and Rs 1.66 crore in cash and investments were seized after he was caught accepting a bribe.

An Assam Civil Service (ACS) officer has been arrested on graft charges and over Rs 1.66 crore in cash and fixed deposits worth another Rs 86 lakh have been seized, along with other investment documents, a police officer said on Saturday.

The accused, Lachit Kumar Das, posted as additional director, Land Records, Guwahati, was apprehended by sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, acting on a complaint alleging that the officer had demanded a bribe for issuing an NOC for land sale permission.

The police officer said Das had allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh as bribe for issuing the No Objection Certification (NOC), and unwilling to pay the money, the complainant approached the Vigilance Directorate.

A trap was laid by the Vigilance sleuths on Thursday at the ACS officer's Guwahati office and he was caught red-handed in his chamber while accepting Rs 45,000 as part of the demanded bribe, the officer said.

A case has been registered by the directorate.

After his apprehension, Vigilance sleuths conducted searches in his two houses in Guwahati.

During the first search operation, Rs 48.38 lakh in cash was retrieved from a locker inside one house and fixed deposits amounting to Rs 80 lakh in the names of the officer and his family members were seized.

''Several general life insurance policies, postal life insurance policies in the names of him and his family members were found. Several bank accounts and documents of landed property have also been found, and analysis of these is underway,'' the police officer added.

The directorate, in a social media post, said, another search was conducted in another house of Das on Friday, and over Rs 1.18 crore in cash was seized.

''On 22-05-2026, a team of @DIR_VAC_ASSAM again conducted a search in another house of Lachit Kumar Das, ACS, ADLR located at Queen's Garden, Ranibagan, Beltola and recovered cash Rs. 1,18,30,000/- & some land related documents,'' it said.