Beawar local body head Babita Chauhan caught taking bribe

Just a day after the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested sub-inspector Babita of Shipra Path police station along with her husband for demanding fifty lakh rupees as bribe, the bureau sleuths arrested another woman named Babita – the chairperson of Beawar Municipality – who was arrested by the ACB while taking a bribe of 2.25 lakh rupees. 

Notably, just as in the previous case, the husband of the chairperson was also arrested in the matter. The ACB learnt that the woman had demanded allotment of a shop worth eighty lakh from a builder who was constructing a mall in Beawar. The arrested chairperson has been identified as Babita Chauhan, her husband Narendra Chauhan and one other accused has been identified as Shiv Prasad. The ACB acted on two separate complaints against the couple.

Case 1: 

“On July 23, 2015, Dr Rajeev Jain, a local from Beawar, registered a complaint claiming he has a plot of land measuring 240 square meters. He had applied with the Beawar municipality to have the land converted for commercial use on November 5, 2015. He claimed that a week before he applied for the conversion, a staffer in the municipality told the complainant that the chairperson had asked for 3.5 lakh rupees  to which the man questioned if the amount was bribe money or government fee. The man informed that the amount was bribe money to get work done and that the fee was in spite of it. He further said the applicant should talk directly to the chairperson,” officials said.

When the man approached the ACB, the bureau registered the complaint and initiated a bid to verify the same. “During verification conducted on July 24, 2018, the complainant was sent to the chairperson’s home where she and her husband met with him and demanded 2.25 lakh rupees as bribe to get the work done. They also demanded the money in five day’s time. On Wednesday, the complainant took the money and as soon as the money was handed, ACB sleuths were given a signal who raided the house and nabbed the trio,” officials said.

Case2:

While the ACB received the first complaint against the chairperson in 2015, on 2nd April 2018, the ACB received another complaint from one Gurubachchan Singh, a resident of Beawar. “The man had a plot of land located opposite Hotel Vinod at Beawar. He was getting a complex constructed over the land and for the purpose of getting the complex approved along with the building plan, the accused demanded a shop worth eighty lakh rupees be allotted to them,” officials said.

The verification of the demand was conducted on 4th April 2018. “Interestingly, for the purpose of getting the sale and purchase agreement with Gurubachchan Singh, they took five lakh rupees from him and forced him to get the sale agreement done through their dummy – Savita Kankani – for just five lakh rupees. Only once this was done, the Beawar municipal council approved the building plan of the project,” officials said, further adding, “However, this was not all, to sign the building plan, the JEN Sabir Ali on July 3 and on July 9 demanded bribe of two lakh rupees for himself and the AEN of ATP Nagar. After his work was completed, the complainant asked ACB not to proceed with the trap. However, the bureau nabbed the chairperson and others in the bribe case during which the agreement entered into for the shop was also recovered.”

Two Cases

While the ACB received the first complaint against the chairperson in 2015, on 2nd April 2018, the ACB received another complaint from one Gurubachchan Singh, a resident of Beawar, who said the couple were demanding a shop worth Rs80 lakh as bribe to get the work done.