Kolhapur Anti-Corruption Bureau Officials Nab Female Food Safety Officer While Receiving Kickback
Pune: In a big sting operation, the Kolhapur Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) apprehended a female Food Safety Officer for taking a bribe of Rs 25,000 to avoid a legal action against the hotel owner. This action was taken on Friday, April 26, in the parking space of the accused food safety officer’s house.
The detained female food safety officer has been identified as Kirti Dhanaji Deshmukh (32), a resident of the Tarabai Park area of Kolhapur. As per the information, ACB found 80 tola gold ornaments, 3.5 lakh rupees in cash, and a diamond necklace worth Rs 3.5 from her house in the investigation.
In this regard, a businessman filed a complaint with the Kolhapur ACB. According to the information, the businessman runs a restaurant called Samrat Foods at Kini in Hatkanangle Taluka. On March 15, food safety officer Kirti Deshmukh inspected the concerned restaurant. At that time, she took some food samples from the restaurant for testing.
During the testing, food samples were found to be adulterated. After that, Deshmukh called the businessman and demanded a bribe of Rs 1 lakh for not taking action against the restaurant. As the plaintiff showed his inability to pay such a huge amount, a settlement was reached between them, and it was decided to pay 70,000 rupees as a compromise amount.
Accordingly, Deshmukh called the plaintiff and asked him to come to his house’s parking space at Vishwa Residency at Tarabai Park to pay the first instalment of 25 rupees. At that time, the plaintiff informed the ACB about it. ACB then laid a trap near the accused’s house and caught her red-handed while receiving the bribery.
During the investigation, police seized a luxury car worth Rs 17 lakh along with valuable assets such as gold ornaments and an expensive diamond necklace. Deputy Superintendent of Police of ACB Sardar Nale informed reporters that his native village Mohol and house of relatives in Pune are also being searched by the ACB team.
ACB registered a case against the accused under the Prevention of Corruption Act in Shahupuri Police Station, and she was produced before the court on Saturday, April 27.