A Bokaro district supply department clerk, posted in the confidential wing of the deputy commissioner’s residential office, was caught red-handed on Thursday morning accepting a bribe of Rs 71,000 to facilitate clearance of a PDS transport bill.

A five-member anti-corruption bureau (ACB) team, led by DSP Chandreshwar Prasad, later raided 42-year-old Mukesh Kumar Verma’s home in Sector I of the steel city and recovered Rs 4.5 lakh in cash. The money, the anti-graft officers said, was disproportionate to the clerk’s known sources of income. Several incriminating documents were also seized.

Verma was brought to the regional ACB office in Dhanbad in the afternoon for interrogation.

SP (anti-corruption) Sudarshan Mandal said he was a native of Mirzapur village in West Champaran district of Bihar and was taking the money from one Kamal Prasad who had sought clearance of a Rs 12 lakh bill towards transportation of food grains from Jaridih and Bermo block offices to various PDS shops.

“Our team conducted the raid following an FIR. Victim Prasad had approached police yesterday (Wednesday), accusing the clerk of corruption. Hefty cash was also found in the clerk’s house,” the SP said.

Snehlata Sahu, wife of complainant Prasad, was appointed agent by the district supply department for doorstep supply of food grains in different blocks of Bokaro, including Bermo, Nawadih, Chandrapura, Jaridih and Gomia, on April 28,2017. Snehlata had authorised her husband to assist her, which was also sanctioned by the department.

Though majority of bills were cleared, one payment to Prasad was pending and Verma decided to cash in on the opportunity, an ACB news release said.

Bokaro deputy commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Baranwal held a news meet at his office on Thursday and promised “to support an impartial and fair inquiry”. He urged people not to malign the image of the district collectorate by posting messages on social media. “He (Verma) was not working as my personal assistant. He was posted as an assistant (clerk) in the supply department,” Baranwal said.

Sources said Verma was first appointed as a clerk in the district health department in 2010 and three years later, transferred to the confidential wing of the DC’s office.