Bhiwandi civic official held

Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths have arrested the chief licence officer of Bhiwandi Nizampura Municipal Corporation, Pradeep Pawar, for taking bribe from a contractor.

Leo Media Marketing had won a six-year contract for advertising boards in the civic limits. The company had put up advertisement on the electric poles when one of its partners, Hrishi kesh Yashvant Dole, 39, from Dombivli got a notice from Pawar that a police complaint has to be lodged against the firm for failing to submit the list of the poles advertised on.

When a shocked Dole met Pawar on February 8 and submitted the list of 15 electric poles, the civic officer insisted on lodging a complaint and demanded an annual bribe of Rs 60,000. Dole was ordered to deliver the cash by February 9. Pawar also threatened to remove all the advertising boards if the amount was not paid.

Dole paid Rs10,000 on February 10, but refused to give the remaining bribe amount, claiming that his firm was not in the wrong. Irked over his refusal, Pawar got all the advertisement boards removed on February 11. Dole again met Pawar to finalise a deal at Rs 25,000, which he agreed to pay on February 13. He also approached the Thane ACB which nabbed Pawar in the act.

In raids on Pawar’s office, officials seized cash Rs 73,000 and a costly Nokia cellphone, while the raid at his Bhiwandi residence yielded documents of a proposed resort and ownership documents of agricultural land.