Assam: Excise official caught taking bribe in Guwahati city

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: A trap operation by a team from Assam’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption resulted in the arrest of Partha Hazarika, Section Officer of the Excise Department, near the main gate of Janata Bhawan in Dispur. He was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe.

Hazarika was caught red-handed by the sleuths of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption directorate near the entrance to the state secretariat at around 11.30 AM after accepting a bribe of Rs. 24,500 from a complainant in exchange for issuing an ‘IMFL ON shop’ license. The complainant had approached the Directorate of V&AC and lodged a complaint against the official as he was unwilling to pay the bribe. Hazarika had demanded a total amount of Rs 1 lakh for the license.

A team of vigilance officers laid a trap on Wednesday morning following the receipt of the complaint, and they witnessed the transaction taking place. Hazarika was then nabbed red-handed by the team while accepting the bribe amount. The tainted bribe money was recovered from Hazarika in the presence of independent witnesses. He was then arrested by the sleuths.

Sources said that Hazarika had demanded a total amount of Rs. 1 lakh as a bribe for issuing the ‘IMFL ON shop’ license to the complainant of the case. He is said to have already received Rs. 45,000 earlier as part of the bribe before being caught in today’s operation.

In connection with the matter, a case was registered at ACB police station, with ACB P.S. Case no. 77/2024, under Section 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018), official sources said. 

Meanwhile, raids are being conducted at Hazarika’s residence in the Jayanagar locality of Guwahati city as part of the ongoing investigation into the case. More details are awaited.

This is not the first instance of a senior government official being caught red-handed while accepting a bribe in Janata Bhawan, the seat of the Assam government. Earlier in March 2017, Secretary in the Irrigation Department, Kujendra Doley, was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000. He was arrested in his office by sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption while accepting the bribe from a contractor for clearing his pending bills. According to the contractor, he had proceeded to pay Rs 15,000 to the official out of the total of Rs 80,000 demanded by Doley.

Also Read: Assam: CBI Arrests Central Water Commission Engineer for Accepting Rs 12,000 Bribe in Silchar (sentinelassam.com)

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