Gujarat: Police arrest Congress MLA for demanding Rs 40 lakh bribe

Gujarat Police have arrested a Congress MLA, Parsottam Sabariya from Dharangadhra for his alleged involvement in the scam of repair and restoration of percolation tanks and minor irrigation schemes in Morbi district.

Police said that Congress lawmaker Sabariya demanded Rs 40 lakh from main accused in the purported scam in exchange for not raising his voice at the local level or the State Assembly. He had already accepted Rs 10 lakh cash, police added.

Meanwhile, the police’s claim has been dismissed by the Congress party. It said that Sabariya has been targeted to save ‘BJP bigwigs’ involved in the scam.

Besides Sabariya, a lawyer named Bharat Ganeshiya, an assistant engineer, a contractual person, and two others have been arrested by the police.

“He (Sabariya) demanded Rs 60 lakh from a state irrigation department engineer and settled for Rs 35 lakh. The lawyer used to collect money for him,” Karanraj Vaghela, Superintendent of Police, Morbi told The Indian Express.

“A grant of Rs 20 crore was approved for the Irrigation Department for various projects. Thereafter, complaints were received from some places that no work had been done there but payment was done. Therefore, we have arrested the MLA, lawyer, an assistant engineer, a contractual person and two others,” he added.

Superintendent of Police of Morbi district, Karanraj Vaghela said that after the MLA learnt about alleged irregularities in the repair and restoration work, he demanded Rs 40 lakh from those involved in the scam.

“The MLA, through his associate Bharat Ganeshiya, demanded Rs 40 lakh (from another accused) for not raising the issue of irregularities in repair and restoration of minor irrigation schemes at local level and also on the floor of the Assembly. They eventually finalised the deal for Rs 35 lakh and accepted Rs 10 lakh installments from the prime accused and representatives of societies (which had been assigned the work contract). As a security for the balance amount, he had also accepted a cheque of an equal amount from a person who is a witness in the case,” Vaghela told the daily.

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