Pune: 16 PCMC Officials Under ACB Scanner For Taking Cut In Bribe Money; Landge And 4 Others In Police Custody Till Saturday
Pimpri/Pune, 19 August 2021: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) today informed a special court (anti-corruption) in Pune that the arrested accused the bribe was to be distributed among 16 officials of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and it is a big racket. Meanwhile, the court remanded all the arrested accused to police custody till Saturday.
On Wednesday evening, the ACB laid a trap at the PCMC building in Pimpri and arrested five persons including standing committee chairman Nitin Dnyaneshwar Landge. His personal assistant (PA) Dnyaneshwar Pingale, clerk Vijay Shambhulal Chawriya, peon Arvind Kamble, and computer operator Rajendra Shinde, are the other accused.
Landge is a BJP corporator from Prabhag 7 in Bhosari. As Chairman of the Standing Committee, Landge takes the decision about various funds.
According to the ACB, the complainant is in the advertising business. He had applied for hoarding licenses at the PCMC’s properties and his 28 tenders were approved. However, the work order was not being released. Landge and his PA allegedly demanded three per cent of the bid amount ie Rs 10 lakh as a bribe for issuing the work order. After negotiation, the amount was reduced to two per cent or Rs six lakh. Out of this amount, the accused accepted Rs 1.18 lakh through Shinde, Kamble and Chawriya.
ACB officials also carried out searches at the office of PA where they found several packets which had names of some 25 corporators. Further investigation is going on, ACB said.
