SMC food safety officer, clerk caught taking ₹45,000 bribe | Surat News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India

Surat: A food safety officer and a clerk of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) were arrested after they were caught red-handed taking a bribe of Rs 45,000 from employee of a businessman seeking licence to sell vegetables.

The Surat anti-corruption bureau (ACB) sleuths raided the SMC office in Rander area and nabbed food safety officer Hemenkumar Gohil and clerk Gulam Yasin Nishar Hussain Shaikh while they were taking bribe money.

According to case details, an employee of a vegetable businessman filed a complaint with ACB accusing Gohil of seeking a bribe to issue a licence to sell vegetables. The businessman owns six shops in a complex where he wanted to start selling vegetables. When his application for a licence reached Gohil, he demanded Rs 45,000 to approve it.

Based on the complaint by an employee of the businessman, ACB Surat laid a trap on Friday. The complainant was called to the food inspection branch of SMC in Nanpura area. Gohil had asked the complainant to give the bribe money to Shaikh. The ACB officer K J Dhaduk caught the duo red-handed.

The trap was supervised by the assistant director of ACB Surat unit R R Chaudhary.