SMC engineer held taking Rs 15K bribe

Surat: The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) sleuths arrested an assistant engineer of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 for approving drainage connections to an apartment building on Thursday.
The accused Jignesh Modi was nabbed red-handed from his Rander zone office.
The ACB team had laid a trap following a complaint from a plumbing contractor who had got work to provide drainage lines to 120 flats in an apartment building.The contractor had approached Modi as the work required approval of the civic body.
On receiving the application from the complainant, Modi demanded Rs 150 per flat which came to around Rs 18,000. After negotiations, Modi agreed for Rs 15,000.
Modi asked the complainant to come to the Rander zone office with the money. ACB police inspector A K Chauhan laid a trap under the supervision of ACB assistant director N P Gohil and caught Modi red-handed.
“The money was recovered from the accused. We have started search at the residence of the accused to collect details about his wealth,” said an ACB official.