Corporator's wife from Antop Hill, civic engineer held for bribery

The wife of a corporator from Antop Hill (ward 171) has been arrested along with their domestic help and a municipal engineer for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs20,000 from a construction contractor. Officials of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the city police said that the role of the corporator, Mahant Chaube, is also being probed.

According to an ACB officer, the contractor had taken up a contract to repair of his friend's house in Wadala. In this connection, he had met junior engineer Anand Rai of the civic Building & Factory department. Rai allegedly demanded Rs8,000 to give permission for the work. The contractor, said officials, paid him the money.

An ACB officer said that as the repairs were going on, Rai visited at site and demanded Rs10,000 from the contractor. That's when the contractor met local corporator Chaube who also demanded Rs20,000. Chaube told the contractor that the money should be handed over to his wife, Urmila.

That's when the contractor lodged a complaint with the ACB. "Officials laid a trap and nabbed Urmila and her domestic help, Geeta Yadav, while accepting the money. Rai was also present at the time," said the officer.