Pune: A state excise department’s E division inspector from Nagpur was caught red-handed by the ACB Squad on Thursday for accepting a bribe of Rs 3.25 lakh to grant the license for a new beer bar. Because of this action, there is a big panic among the employees of the excise department. Furthermore, it is also anticipated that many senior officers will also be caught in this case.
In this regard, a 31-year-old businessman living in Friends Colony has filed a complaint at the Nagpur ACB office. The complainant owns a restaurant in the Kalameshwar area. For the expansion of his restaurant, the complainant wanted a beer license for his restaurant, and for this, he filed an application with the excise department.
To his surprise, the state excise inspector, Ravindra Laxman Kokre, demanded 4 lakh rupees from the complainant to verify and send his license file to the superintendent. At the end of the compromise, it was decided to pay three lakh and twenty-five thousand rupees. Therefore, the plaintiff lodged a complaint about it with ACB Superintendent Rahul Maknikar.
When the ACB team verified the complaint, they found that Inspector Ravindra Kokre indeed demanded Rs 4 lakh from the plaintiff. Accordingly, the team laid a trap in the area of Children’s Traffic Park in Dharam Peth on Thursday night and apprehended the accused inspector, Kokre, while taking the bribe. After that, the ACB team arrested the accused and registered a case against him at Sitabardi police station.
This operation was done by the team of Police Inspector Praveen Lakde, Police Constable Sarang Balpande, Asmita Meshram, Vikas Sayre, and Raju Jambhulkar, under the guidance of Nagpur ACB Superintendent Rahul Maknikar and Additional Superintendent Sanjay Purandare.
