AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials on Tuesday, in one of its biggest seizures, found Rs 2.27 crore cash from Nipun Choksi, a government official who was arrested on July 16 for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 1.21 lakh.
The ACB officials were quick to issue a statement and termed it as the biggest ever seizure in its history. The official statement of ACB stated that it has also recovered 300 grams of gold worth Rs 10 lakh from one of the lockers of accused Nipun Choksi, state project engineer (class 2) with the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) office in Gandhinagar. The gold was found from the locker of Canara Bank in Gandhinagar.
The ACB officials said that during the search they had found a locker in the Gandhinagar Nagarik Co-operative Bank Gandhinagar Sachivalaya Branch and recovered Rs 74.50 lakh from this locker. In other two lockers in Gandhinagar Co-operative Bank they found Rs 1.52 crore.
Choksi was held in a trap on July 16 while accepting Rs 1.21 lakh after a contractor who had completed some work for the SSA in Patan approached the ACB with a bribery complaint.
The probe has found that Choksi used to charge a ‘commission’ of 1% on the amount paid to contractors for work completed, the ACB release informed.
The ACB has stated in the release that earlier a cash and gold-silver ornaments totalling to Rs 1.27 lakh was recovered from Bhaya Sutreja, regional officer of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board. The cash and ornaments were recovered from the Jamnagar locker of Sutreja.
In yet another incident, Rs 37.19 lakh was seized from the locker of Raman Charel, director boiler of the labour and employment department.
Choksi was arrested following a complaint by a sub-contractor. The sub-contractor had completed the work of Kastuba Gandhi Girls School in Shankheshwar Taluka and Boys’ Hostel in Sami Taluka of Patan district under Shiksha Abhiyan. The accused had allegedly demanded 1.25 per cent cut for approval of bills. However, later it was decided to pay 1%.
