A few days after the assistant of an ex-minister of state was arrested for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 23 lakh from a businessman, the ACB sleuths have recovered several files pertaining to various hearings of the revenue department from the ex-minister's official residence on Saturday.
Suresh Dhas, former revenue minister, has however denied the allegations. "This was done without my knowledge and I am not involved in the case, directly or indirectly," said Dhas.
Vishwas Nangre Patil, additional commissioner of ACB, said, "We were granted permission from the court to search the former minister's house in Cuffe Parade. We will be verifying the documents and find out if they are connected to the case." The documents recovered from Dhas's house include copies of revenue department hearings and the original copy of a file pertaining to a case of the cooperative department. The ACB sleuths had also seized 82 official files from Andhale's residence related to various government departments, most of which were revenue department files.
Based on the 23-year-old businessman's complaint, Vaibhav Andhale, an agent and his two aides — Sanjay Suradkar and Devidas Dahifale — desk officers at the revenue department, were arrested after they allegedly took a bribe of Rs23 lakh from Andhale in south Mumbai on October 28. The bribe was sought for handing over an order copy of a land-related issue which was approved by the revenue department in its hearing.
The complainant, who had the power of attorney of 18 acres of a temple trust land, wanted to convert it into a normal piece of land, and the matter was brought before the revenue department. The order was in favour of the complainant; however, Andhale demanded money to hand over the file related to it.
Furthermore, investigations revealed that the Andhale was an assistant to the ex-minister and he had taken the file from Dhas's residence, which led the police to suspect the minister's role in the case.
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