PUNE, Oct 1: The action taken by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against a bench clerk in the Shivajinagar court last week has received a new twist with the veracity of the trap being challenged in the court.ACB officials had on Friday evening ``caught'' Shailendra Bakre - a bench clerk in the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) A R Soni - allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 500 from Hemant Chikhlikar, a doctor with the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, in return for issuing a non-bailable warrant. However, Madhukar Bakre, who claimed to have been witness to the proceedings, said on the same day that the entire operation was ``fake'' and on Monday filed an affidavit before district judge P S Mane, challenging the veracity of the operation.When contacted, Madhukar confirmed that an affidavit had been filed. Terming the similarity between the two surnames as just a `coincidence', Madhukar said the ACB sleuths had forced him.Bakre claimed that the amount was shoved forcibly into Shailendra's pocket by two persons, even as he held the court files in his hands. ``How could he accept the money when he was holding the files?'' Madhukar demanded. Explaining his presence in the court at that time, he claimed he had come to get details of his personal case.``One of the two persons later went out and signalled, after which the ACB team swung into action and surrounded Shailendra Bakre. ``They told him to take the money out. But I intervened and told him that if he (court clerk) did so, it would bear his fingerprints,'' he said. ``Later, I informed one of the court officials who advised me to speak to the district judge,'' he said. ``I spoke to him (the district judge) over the phone that evening and decided to meet him on Monday,'' he informed.He said that he met the district judge on Monday morning. ``He gave me a hearing and asked me to file an affidavit,'' informed Madhukar. Meanwhile, sources in the court said the affidavit was sent to the Mumbai High Court on Tuesday morning as the matter ``was of utmost importance''.
