Anti-corruption Bureau officers caught the Chikhli taluka mamlatdar and his associate clerk for accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 from a tribal man for reopening a closed file, on Monday evening.

According to the details of the case, Mangta Patel, a resident of Lumber village, had asked the mamlatdar at Chikhli in Navsari district to reopen the file on the approach road passing near his house.

Revenue Department mamlatdar M B Prajapati demanded Rs 5,000 for opening the file and getting the matter solved.

Mangta went back to his home and spoke to his relatives who then guided him to contact the Anti-Corruption Bureau office at Navsari.

Mangta lodged a complaint with the ACB office at Navsari on Saturday afternoon.

On the ACB’s advice, Mangta went to the mamlatdar office on Monday to hand over the bribe to Prajapati, who told him to hand it to over his clerk Ambelal Patel.

Mangta acted as per Prajapati’s instructions and handed over the cash to Ambelal and left the office. The ACB officers, who were waiting outside the office, caught Ambelal Patel while he was pocketing the cash.

On questioning, Ambelal told the officers that he had accepted the money on behalf of Prajapati.

ACB Inspector Barot said: “We have arrested Prajapati and Patel for accepting the bribe and have started investigations. During interrogation, we have found that they were into such illegal activities since long and many people had become victim of their malpractices.”