The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has taken swift action in Thane district, apprehending an engineer, a technician, and a clerk from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL), along with an accomplice, in connection with a bribery case.
The incident dates back to August 14, when a 34-year-old assistant engineer serving in the MSEDCL’s Kalyan division removed the power meter from a flat in the Ambernath area due to suspicions of tampering, revealed Thane ACB Inspector Hanmant Kshirsagar in a statement. Upon inspecting the electricity meter on August 28, the engineer conveyed to the resident that unauthorized power usage had been ongoing for the past three years, resulting in an estimated sum of Rs 3 to 4 lakh owed, inclusive of power consumption charges and penalties. In a concerning turn of events, the engineer purportedly suggested that the bill could be reduced to Rs 1 lakh, but for this leniency, he allegedly demanded a bribe initially amounting to Rs 75,000, which was later reduced to Rs 70,000, according to official reports.
Refusing to succumb to extortion, the resident chose to report the bribery attempt to the ACB’s Thane unit, prompting immediate action from law enforcement.
ACB officers set up a sting operation on Monday, leading to the apprehension of a 35-year-old individual who allegedly accepted the bribe amount of Rs 70,000 on behalf of the engineer near a temple located on the Kalyan-Badlapur road in Ambernath.
Subsequently, the engineer, along with a junior clerk and a principal technician from the MSEDCL, all allegedly implicated in the bribery scheme, were arrested, stated the official. The four individuals now face charges under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, as a case has been formally registered against them at the Ambernath police station.
