Navi Mumbai: Within a fortnight after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested two employees at CIDCO’s Nerul regional office while accepting the bribe, the Navi Mumbai unit of the ACB has exposed yet another bribery racket. This time at CIDCO’s Sub-Registrar (Co-operative Societies) office in Vashi. On Wednesday evening, the ACB team laid a trap and caught four accused, including three government employees, red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 3.5 lakh.

The arrested have been identified as office assistant Rahul Rangarao Kamble (50), co-operative officer Dhanaji Dattatray Kalukhe (52), Peon Mahesh Gangaram Kamothkar, and a private individual Kishor Shankarrao More from Kalwa, Thane.

According to officials, the case pertains to a housing society in Sector-9, Vashi. The secretary of the society lodged a complaint with the ACB, alleging that CIDCO officials demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh to issue a favourable order in a matter involving a society committee-related dispute. After negotiations, the amount was settled at Rs 3.5 lakh.

Following the complaint, ACB conducted verification checks between August 12 and 22, during which the demand for a bribe was confirmed. Accordingly, a trap was set at the Vashi Sub-Registrar's office. During the operation, the accused officers, Kamble and Kalukhe, directed that the bribe amount be handed over to peon Mahesh Kamothkar.

As soon as the complainant gave the money to Kamothkar, the ACB team swooped in and caught him red-handed. Subsequently, Kamble, Kalukhe, and More were also arrested. All four have been booked at the APMC police station under sections 7, 7(A), and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Further investigations are underway, confirmed DySP Dharmaraj Sonke, who led the operation.

Around a fortnight before, the Navi Mumbai ACB caught two persons—a woman employee and a contractual worker—accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000 at CIDCO’s Nerul office. Earlier in June, the Thane ACB unit had also arrested the president of the CIDCO Employees’ Union for accepting Rs 1.5 lakh bribe from a retired staffer. With these successive operations, a total of six individuals linked to CIDCO have been trapped for bribery in less than four months, once again exposing rampant corruption in the organization.