2 forest officials held for accepting bribe

Our Correspondent

Jammu, March 8

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has arrested two officials of Forest Department for accepting a bribe of Rs 12,500 from a complainant in Baramulla district.

ACB received a complaint from a resident of Rafiabad in Baramulla district alleging that a forester was demanding bribe from him to issue a permit for transportation of timber. The complainant stated that he runs a timber business at Rafiabad. He purchased timber from different places and recently sold about 375 Cft timber to a customer from Srinagar for which he needed transit permit from Range Office, Watergam, Baramulla. Accordingly, he submitted four applications online under National Transit Pass System, which is required for transporting timber.

He further stated that when he visited Range Office, Watergam, he was given one transit permit for transportation of timber but the concerned Forester, Mansoor Ahmad, demanded bribe of Rs 3,500 for the issued permit and also told him that he had to pay more for other three pending permits. “Under these circumstances, the complainant approached ACB with written complaint and requested for legal action against concerned officers,” an official informed.

The official informed that the allegations were verified and after proper verification, a case was registered at police station ACB Baramulla against Mansoor Ahmad and other official of Range Office, Watergam, and investigation was commenced.

During the course of investigation, a team was constituted which laid a successful trap and caught Ahmad and one other official red handed while demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 12,500 from complainant. Both the accused were arrested on the spot after completing all legal formalities and the bribe money was also recovered from them.

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