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Range Forest Officer swallows Rs 12k bribe, Gujarat ACB seeks DNA test to prove crime

In a first, agency will make use of DNA to prove govt official's bribery

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A forest official decided to turn literal with the term- rishwat khaana- when he decided to chew his way out of a bribery trap. Unfortunately for him, the officials of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) nabbed him soon enough, to extract the bribe from his mouth.

Thanks to the unusual attempt by Range Forest Officer of Dantiwada, Chandrakant Joshi, the ACB will, for the first time, use DNA to prove a bribery case.

The incident happened on May 22 when, following a complaint by a tractor owner, the ACB laid a trap for Joshi. The complainant had alleged that Joshi had been demanding Rs 12,000 from him for allowing him to transport wood.

On the day of the incident, Joshi took the Rs 12,000 from the complainant but soon realised that he had been trapped.

"He put the Rs 12,000 in his mouth to avoid being caught red-handed. When he suddenly went silent during our questioning, the cops realised where the money had gone," said DP Chudasama, assistant director of ACB.

"We have collected samples of saliva from his mouth as well as from the notes he tried to chew away. This will help us prove the bribery. This is also the first time in our history that we will be making use of DNA to prove a bribery case," said Chudasama.

He added that they have also recovered an envelope with some people's names on it. A search of the official's house led to seizure of Rs 13.75 lakh in cash.

The ACB also successfully trapped three other bribe takers on the same day. One involved an income tax official from Valsad who was caught accepting Rs 75,000 bribe from a person. The other two were a sub-auditor in Gandhinagar, Bharat Patel and one Dharmen Ruparel, who is believed to be a middleman for some government officials. Patel was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000 while Ruparel was caught with Rs 1.80 lakh.

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