BMC employees caught asking for hefty bribes to release confiscated vada pavs and sandwiches from a shop at Fort
Brihanmumbai Corporation (BMC) employees seem to have fallen on hard times. And the humble vada pav is their latest target of harassment. Perhaps adversely affected by the economic slowdown, they have now taken to bullying owners of even vada pav stalls and demanding bribes of R1,000 from them.
Two such BMC employees belonging to the anti-encroachment department of A ward were caught red-handed by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials late on Friday. The two employees, Mohan Pandurang Rayilkar and Subhash Shripad Mane, were arrested along with a third person for accepting a bribe of R1,060 from a hawker.
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Rayilkar is an assistant recovery officer and Mane is a security guard with the BMC. The third accused has been identified as Kalamuddin Shaukatali Shaikh. According to ACB officials the complainant runs a vada pav and sandwich stall in Fort. On May 3, while he was at his shop, BMC officials confiscated his goods and took them to a godown in Wadala. When the complainant visited the Wadala godown to reclaim his foodstuff, he discovered a middleman called Shaikh was releasing the goods after taking bribes between Rs 1,000 and 2,000 bribes and passing it on to the BMC officials. Obviously, they were not issuing any receipt.
The complainant then approached ACB officials and registered an FIR. After confirming the complainant’s claims, on Friday ACB officials laid a trap and arrested the accused while they were accepting a bribe of Rs 1,060.
They have been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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