Clerk caught taking Rs 35,000 bribe inside Mantralaya: ACB

A clerk with the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration was caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau while allegedly accepting a Rs 35,000 bribe at the state secretariat, Mantralaya, an official said. The Congress alleged that the accused Rajendra Dherange was arrested in a cabinet minister's office, and the incident highlighted what it called ''rampant corruption'' under the BJP-led government. An ACB official, however, said that he was caught while taking a bribe at the FDA office on the second floor of Mantralaya. The clerk had allegedly demanded Rs 50,000 from a complainant who wanted his medical licence to be restored, the official said. After the complainant approached the ACB, a trap was laid, and Dherange was apprehended while accepting Rs 35,000 as part payment inside his office on Thursday evening, he said. A case was registered against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and a probe was on, the official said. Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal termed the incident ''shocking''. ''ACB laid a trap in the office of a cabinet minister at Mantralaya and took into custody a bribery-tainted officer. This once again makes it clear that bribery and commission-taking are happening openly in the Mantralaya under the Mahayuti government,'' he said in a post on X. No work is carried out without payment of bribes, Sapkal said, demanding that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis disclose the details of the case and remove the concerned minister.