Journalism of Courage
Assam Irrigation department secretary Kujendra Doley was on Tuesday caught by sleuths of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau while allegedly accepting a bribe from a contractor at the state secretariat at Guwahati.
On a tip off by the contractor along with evidence the Vigilance officials caught Doley allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 from the complainant for clearing a pending bill for payment at the state Secretariat ‘Janata Bhavan’, Vigilance officials told reporters.
The Irrigation secretary is being interrogated by the sleuths, who also seized Rs 45 lakh in cash from Doley’s office chamber, the officials said.
During raids carried out at his apartment at Chachal locality in Guwahati, they said over Rs 11 lakh in cash, passbooks of six bank accounts, LIC policies and other documents were also seized.
According to the contractor, he paid an advance of Rs 15,000 of the demanded Rs 80,000 “as mutually agreed upon” by him and the government official.
The official had allegedly demanded hefty bribes to clear nearly 300 payment files in his custody before the year-end, the sleuths and contractors claimed.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal on Tuesday said such crackdown on corrupt government officials in Assam would continue as the new BJP-led state government had come with a mandate to stop corruption in the state so that the poor received their just due.
Last year, the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul, Members Basanta Kumar Doley and Samedur Rahman, besides Assistant Controller of Examinations Pabitra Kaibarta were arrested on cash for job corruption charges.
