ACB nabs inspector, 2 aides over Rs 5.82 cr graft case

Kolkata: The Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) arrested a motor vehicles (MV) inspector and two others from Shaktigarh MV checkpost in East Burdwan, late on Thursday night. A total of Rs 5.82 crore was recovered, during the subsequent search operations.

Sources said the inspector, Biswajit Dey, was arrested along with two persons, Kamal Prasad and Sisir Roy, who used to receive money on his behalf.

The ACB officers had received a complaint a few days ago from a transport businessman, who had alleged that the inspector had demanded Rs 1 lakh for him to allow his vehicles, even if they are overloaded or having any other faults.

During further negotiation, the inspector had settled the deal at Rs 90,000 and the businessman had fixed Thursday night as the time when he would be giving the money at the checkpost.

As per the discussion, the businessman went to the checkpost and handed over the cash to Kamal and Sisir, following which, the ACB officers arrested both of them red-handed.

Kamal works as a parking manager in a parking lot situated at a stone's throw distance from the checkpost, while Sisir is an operator in a nearby weighbridge.

During interrogation, both Kamal and Sisir took the sleuths to the inspector, who was subsequently arrested. The ACB officers came to know after preliminary investigation, that the inspector used to fix the deal and following his instruction, Kamal and Sisir used to collect the money, for which they used to get a share.

The ACB officers conducted subsequent search operations and recovered a total of Rs 5.82 crore. The major portion of the money was recovered from a cupboard in the parking lot, whose manager is Kamal.

Some of the money was also found in the house of the inspector at Durgapur. Several property-related documents were also found from the house of the inspector.

The investigating officers will be questioning the accused to get more information in this connection.

The officers suspect that this had been going on for quite some time and there are many such businessmen from whom money was taken, which resulted in flouting the existing norms in place for the plying of goods vehicles.