THE PUNE unit of the State Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested a 50-year-old clerk from a divisional office of the revenue department in Pune district and another person on charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 1.6 lakh for alloting land in eight projects to families affected by the Temghar dam project in Pune district. The ACB was probing if any senior officials were involved in the graft. A team from Pune ACB on Monday arrested Sujata Badade (50), posted as a senior clerk in the office of the Pune City - Shirur subdivisional officer of the Revenue Department and a private person identified as Tanaji Marne (46), a resident of Bibwewadi, who allegedly accepted the bribe on Badade's behest. Pune ACB had received a complaint from a man whose joint family was slated to receive compensatory land from the government because theirs had been acquired for the Temghar dam project. The eight members of this joint family are to receive two gunthas (a guntha is one fortieth of an acre) of land. The proposal for the final allotment of the said order was pending before the said office of the revenue department. The complainant had approached the ACB earlier this month after Badade allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 4 lakh — Rs 50,000 for each of the eight families for the final allotment. The bribe demand was verified by the ACB on February 7. The bribe amount was negotiated to Rs 3.2 lakh and a trap was set up at the office of Pune City - Shirur sub divisional officer on Monday. Marne was caught red handed accepting Rs 1.6 lakh from the total bribe amount. He was placed under arrest subsequently. Badade and Marne were produced before a court in Pune and have been remanded to police custody for two days. "As part of the probe we will investigate if any senior officer is involved in this graft case." said an ACB official.
