Action by Anti-Corruption Bureau: PCMC standing panel chief, his secy, three civic staffers arrested for graft

BJP says ‘political game’, NCP says ACB action ‘long overdue’.

ACB officials said the civic employees were caught accepting Rs 1.18 lakh bribe from a contractor, on behalf of the chairman and his secretary, at the parking lot. (Representational)

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday arrested Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s standing committee chairman Nitin Landge, his personal secretary and three civic employees for allegedly accepting Rs 1.18 lakh in bribe from a contractor.

While the ruling BJP claimed that the arrests were part of a “bigger political game” in view of the civic elections, to be held early next year, NCP said it has been consistently raising its voice against “rampant corruption” in PCMC and it has been proved right.

Besides Landge, who is a BJP corporator from Bhosari area, the others arrested include his personal secretary Dnyaneshwar Pingale, civic clerk Vijay Chavria, computer operator Rajendra Shinde and peon Arvind Kamble.

The ACB action came soon after the weekly standing committee meeting, which took place at PCMC headquarters on Wednesday afternoon. After the meeting got over around 4 pm, the standing committee chairman remained in his cabin on the third floor of PCMC headquarters, while the three civic employees reportedly went to the parking lot.

ACB officials said the civic employees were caught accepting Rs 1.18 lakh bribe from a contractor, on behalf of the chairman and his secretary, at the parking lot.

The contractor had tipped off the ACB about the alleged bribe demand from the standing committee chairman and his secretary, said officials of the Bureau.

“We have arrested five persons, including PCMC standing committee chairman Nitin Landge, for taking bribe. They have been arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. All five will be produced in court on Thursday,” ACB Superintendent of Police Rajesh Bansode told The Indian Express.

Story continues below this ad

Bansode said a contractor had lodged a complaint with the ACB, after which Bureau officials conducted the raid. “The contractor had bagged contracts from PCMC for erecting advertising hoardings. The amount was demanded for issuing the work order,” he said.

In a press release, the ACB said the contractor was initially asked to pay Rs 10 lakh, which is 3 per cent of the total contract amount for 28 tenders. “During a meeting with the standing committee chairman Nitin Landge and his secretary, they demanded the bribe amount from the contractor for issuing the work order. After discussion, the amount came down to Rs 6 lakh. Finally, for approving six files of the contract, Rs 1.18 lakh was demanded from the contractor. Three staffers were arrested for taking the bribe in the parking lot of the civic headquarters on behalf of the chairman. Later, the chairman and his personal secretary were questioned and taken into custody,” read the statement.

BJP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit president Mahesh Landge, however, claimed that the ACB action was “politically motivated”.

“In view of the ensuing election, we suspect a bigger political game to defame and oust BJP, which has been doing a good job for the people of Pimpri-Chinchwad… I know Nitin Landge for years, he will never do anything of this sort. He has been framed,” said Landge.

Story continues below this ad

The NCP, the main opposition party in PCMC, said the action was long overdue. “After the BJP came to power, corruption has reached every office and department of the civic body. We have been consistently raising the issue of corruption. We had even intimated the state government. The ACB action has proved that what the NCP was saying was right,” said NCP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit president Sanjog Waghere.

This is the second major action by the ACB inside the PCMC headquarters in the last four years. On April 24, 2017, ACB sleuths had nabbed the stenographer of then PCMC municipal commissioner Dinesh Waghmare for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 12 lakh from a builder for issuing completion certificates for his newly-constructed buildings.

– Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Chandan Haygunde

Chandan Haygunde is an assistant editor with The Indian Express with 15 + years of experience in covering issues related to Crime, Courts, National Security and Human Rights. He has been associated with The Indian Express since 2007. Chandan has done investigative reporting on incidents of terrorism, left wing extremism, espionage cases, wildlife crimes, narcotics racket, cyber crimes and sensational murder cases in Pune and other parts of Maharashtra. While working on the ‘Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Fellowship on Tigers, Tiger Habitats and Conservation’ in 2012, he reported extensively on the illegal activities in the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. He has done in-depth reporting on the cases related to the Koregaon Bhima violence in Pune and hearings of the ‘Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry’. ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories