The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Vadodara Monday nabbed a Class-III employee of ward 13 of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 8,000. The ACB said that junior clerk Bharat Dinesh Shah had demanded a bribe of Rs 9,000 from the complainant for allegedly “correcting” a property tax record of a restaurant in the name of its owner. According to the ACB, the complainant — the owner of a popular South Indian restaurant on Rajmahal Road — had approached Shah with an application to correct the records of the VMC's property tax pertaining to the restaurant as it was in the possession of its owner. “The restaurant, which has been in the possession of its owner, reflected as being a 'leased to tenant' property in the VMC records, making the annual property tax higher than those in possession of owners. When the owner approached Shah with the application, he demanded a bribe of Rs 9,000. The complainant did not wish to pay the sum as bribe and approached the ACB," a release from the ACB said on Monday. The ACB Police Inspector ML Swami laid a trap and allegedly caught Shah at around 2 pm, while accepting Rs 8,000 out of the Rs 9000 demanded from the complainant. The ACB also stated that it had recovered the bribe money from Shah subsequently and initiated the process to arrest Shah.
