3 PWD Officers caught taking bribe in Indore:Lokayukta recovers money from office-residence; demands ₹3.50 lakh instead of bill

Three officers of the Public Works Department (PWD) were caught taking bribes on Tuesday in Indore. The names of the arrested officers are Jaydev Gautam (Executive Engineer, Division-1, Indore), TK Jain (Sub-Divisional Officer, PWD Division-1), and Anshu Dubey (Assistant Engineer, Division-1, Indore). The Lokayukta team caught accused Jaydev Gautam taking a bribe of ₹1.50 lakh from his government residence. TK Jain was caught red-handed taking ₹1 lakh from under the porch of the office premises. Accused Anshu Dubey had also demanded ₹1 lakh, but did not take the money due to a lesser amount being available. Thus, a total amount of ₹2.50 lakh has been seized. Completed work worth ₹4.51 crore Rajpal Singh Panwar, operator of Patel Enterprises, is a government contractor. He is a resident of Dhar, and in the year 2023, his firm had taken up the work of the Mathwada Four-Lane approach road for ₹4.73 crore, which was completed at ₹4.51 crore. A complaint was filed at the Lokayukta office in Indore alleging that officials demanded a bribe of ₹3.50 lakh in exchange for final bill payment. After the complaint was found to be true during verification, a trap team was formed, and action was taken on Tuesday. Case registered under Prevention of Corruption Act A case has been registered against the accused under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, and Section 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and action is ongoing. The trap team included TI Ashutosh Mithas, Pratibha Tomar and Vivek Mishra, along with other members. This action was taken under the directions of Lokayukta’s Director General Yogesh Deshmukh and Deputy Inspector General of Police Manoj Kumar Singh.