Two AAP corporators booked for demanding Rs 10 lakh bribe from Surat contractor; one held

Ahmedabad: Two Aam Aadmi Party corporators were booked for allegedly demanding a Rs 10 lakh bribe from a parking facility operator for not getting his contract cancelled for "encroaching" Surat Municipal Corporation's land, leading to the arrest of one of them, the ACB said on Tuesday.

The accused used code words such as "document" for money during their mobile phone conversation with the complainant. The case against them was based on evidence including the forensic voice spectrography test, the Anti-Corruption Bureau stated in a release.

The ACB arrested Vipul Suhagiya, the corporator from municipal ward no 17 after an FIR was registered against him and his colleague Jitendra Kachhadia, the corporator from ward no 16, on Monday, under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Kachhadia is being traced, said Deputy Superintendent of Police, ACB, GV Padheriya.

The Surat civic body created a multi-level parking facility under a town planning scheme and granted a contract to the complainant to operate the pay and park facility, the ACB said. The corporation earmarked space for a vegetable market adjacent to the parking facility.

"The two AAP corporators visited the area and accused the contractor of illegally encroaching upon the land meant for vegetable market and threatened to get his contract cancelled and lodge a police complaint against him," the ACB stated.

They allegedly forced the contractor to write an "apology" letter regarding the "illegal encroachment" and demanded Rs 11 lakh in bribe for not getting his contract cancelled, it said.

"They (the corporators) discussed the payment on mobile phone with the complainant and settled for a Rs 10 lakh bribe," according to the ACB.

The corporators used code words such as "document" for money during the mobile phone conversation. The contractor recorded the conversation and approached the ACB with the CD of the call recordings, based on which a primary investigation was launched.

The accused later accepted that "document" was the code word for money, according to ACB.

The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) issued a "no tampering' certificate for the CD submitted by the complainant. The content of the call recordings also supported the claims that the corporators had demanded a bribe, the ACB said.

"Their voice spectrography test conducted at the FSL established that the corporator duo had spoken with the contractor on the mobile phone. All these facts supported the complaint that they demanded a bribe of Rs 10 lakh, following which an FIR was registered," the ACB added.