BMC contractor,hotel owner arrested in separate graft cases

“Bhandare and his associate went up to him and demanded Rs 4,000. The person did not have the money with him. Bhandare stopped the work and told him to meet him in his office,””said an ACB officer.

When the hutment owner’s wife went to meet Bhandare at his office,he allegedly demanded Rs 10,000 from her. “They did not want to pay a bribe and registered a complaint against Bhandare. A trap was laid and we caught him red-handed while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000,” the officer said.

The hotel owner,Ganesh Raut,was arrested by ACB officers when he was offering a bribe of Rs 50,000 to an Assistant Commissioner of Police.

“Raut has a hotel on Golibar Road in Santacruz (East). He wanted some permission for his hotel and approached the local ACP for the same. When he reached the office,he told ACP (Vakola Division) Anil Kharade that he needed permission to allow couples to stay there. Kharade said that he did not have his papers in order and that he could not give him the requisite permission. Raut offered him Rs 2.5 lakh to give him the permission,” said the officer.

Kharade did not want to accept the bribe and approached the ACB. “We registered a complaint and laid a trap. When Raut came and offered Rs 50,000,we nabbed him,” the officer said. ACB officers are now probing both cases.