A District Education Officer (DEO) was caught red-handed here today by Lokayukta sleuths while he was allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 20,000 from a private school principal.
DEO Kishore Shinde had demanded the bribe from the complaint, Mohandas Vaishnav, principal of a private school, to give him clean chit in a case, Lokayukta Inspector Yuvraj Singh Chouhan said.
A complaint was earlier filed against Vaishnav by the parent of a ward that he was beaten in his school. The matter was reported to the district administration during a public hearing camp in November following which the authorities had asked Shinde to probe the issue, Chouhan said.
The DEO, in order to give clean chit to Shinde, demanded Rs 50,000 bribe and as advance had already taken Rs 30,000 from him, he said.
Based on the complaint, a trap was laid and Shinde was caught red-handed by Lokayukta sleuths while he was taking Rs 20,000 bribe at his residence in Jaora Compound area, he said adding that subsequently, the DEO was arrested.
A case under Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against him and further investigations are on.
(Reopens BES 12)
Meanwhile, talking to reporters in Pune later today,
Khadse said, "It seems that there is a conspiracy to defame me and therefore a thorough investigation should be carried out in this matter."
He added that his office had already rejected Jadhav's review petition in the particular land allotment matter in February 2016 and since the particular land comes under grazing land category, it cannot be transferred to any private person or entity as per the Supreme Court orders.
"The land has already been allotted to state Transport Department in March 2014 and so technically it is not in possession of the Revenue Department and cannot be transferred to anybody," the Minister said.
