Nashik: 37-year-old clerk from land records office held while accepting bribe

A 37-year-old clerk in the land records office was nabbed by an anti-corruption bureau (ACB) team on Monday while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000.

Nilesh Shankar Kapse, a resident of Udavanagar in Makhmalabad Road, allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 2 lakh, including Rs 50,000 for stamps and signatures as well as personal labour charges for measuring the farming group owned by the complainant's father and including the mention of the individual land shale of the complainant in it.

According to the information provided by the complainant, Kapse counted the agricultural group numbers owned by the complainant’s father and showed him the mention of his shale in the land. The clerk was nabbed while accepting money in the presence of five witnesses.

ACB police inspector Sandip Ghuge, police havaldar Eknath Baviskar and constable Nitin Netare were part of the team that nabbed Kapse.

'Land records office a breeding ground for corruption'

Common citizens have complained that no work is done without the exchange of money in the land records office. On January 31, land records office district superintendent Mahesh Kumar Mahadev Shinde, 50, along with junior clerk Amol Bhimrao Mahajan, 44, were arrested while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000. The duo had allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh from the complainant. Within a month now, a clerk from the land records office has been arrested. Citizens have claimed that the land records office has become a breeding ground for corruption.