Sleuths from Assam police’s vigilance and anti-corruption branch have recovered over ₹48 lakh in cash from the residence of a senior state government officer who was arrested on Thursday in a bribery case.
An official from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption said the arrest of Lachit Kumar Das, additional director with the Land Records Directorate, is the fourth in a bribery case this year. Those arrested earlier included executive engineer T. Islam and forest officials S. Shandilya and A. Basumatary.
According to officials, over 115 government officials have been arrested in bribery-related cases in Assam since 2021.
In a statement on Friday, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption said that the search conducted at the Beltola residence of Das, the team “recovered and seized cash amounting to ₹48,38,150… from a locker inside his house”. A Guwahati court on Friday remanded Das to three-days in judicial custody.
Additionally, fixed deposit certificates amounting to ₹80 lakh in his name and in the names of his family members were also found and seized.
“Several general life insurance policies and postal life insurance policies in his name and the names of his family members, several bank accounts and documents of landed properties were also found during the search; analysis is underway,” the statement said. The search ended at 11.30am on Friday.
Das was apprehended while allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹45,000 in Guwahati following a complaint that he had demanded ₹1 lakh in bribe from the complainant in connection with issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) for land sale permission.
The statement said that the complainant, unwilling to pay the bribe, approached the vigilance directorate for legal action against Das.
Accordingly, a trap was laid on Thursday by a team from the vigilance and anti-corruption branch at the Directorate of Land Records, during which Das was caught.