Maharashtra official gets three-year jail for accepting bribe

A Maharashtra government official has been sentenced to three years in jail by a special court here for accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 in 2013 on behalf of his senior for extending an official favour to an employee of the Pune civic body.

In his order, pronounced on April 30, the special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court judge S J Biyani convicted Udaysingh Chouhan (48), who was posted as Desk Officer with the Urban Development Department (UDD) in Mumbai under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court, however, acquitted the then UDD deputy secretary Anandrao Jiwane and department clerk Subhash More of the bribery charges under the act.

As per the prosecution, Chouhan had accepted Rs 50,000-bribe from the complainant, Laxman Damse, an employee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), in October 2013, on the behalf of Jiwane at Mantralaya (state secretariat) in Mumbai.

Damse and others were suspended in 2012 for some irregularities, but were given a clean chit .