Graft charge on Garhwa officer
An executive engineer of the building division, Garhwa, was caught red-handed accepting a bribe at his office at Garhwa Collectorate, around 200km from Ranchi, on Friday.
Ramesh Chandra Prasad, 57, is from Dayalchak under Sakurabad police station of Jahanabad district in Bihar.
He had allegedly demanded Rs 5,000 from one Ram Kumar Upadhyay, a resident of Karua Khurd under Garhwa police station, to release security money after the completion of a scheme.
A team from the anti-corruption bureau (ACB), Palamu, arrested him from his office around 11.30am while he was taking the money from Upadhyay.
Deputy superintendent of police, ACB, Ram Pujan Singh, who led the team, said: “We laid a trap to catch Chandra Prasad after Upadhyay approached us. After the complainant had completed a work for the department, they had demanded a bribe of Rs 8,000 for payment of security money. Upadhyay, who processed his application, demanded Rs 8,000 and settled for Rs 5,000.”
After the deal was fixed, Upadhyay submitted a written complaint to the ACB office in Palamu.
“We smeared a bundle of notes with a chemical and gave it to Upadhyay to hand over to Prasad. As soon as the complainant gave the notes to the executive engineer, our team nabbed him,” Singh added.
They made the accused plunge his right palm in a glass of water, which turned red because of the chemical. During the search operation, a team recovered Rs 1.81 lakh from the rented house, he said.
Prasad was taken to the ACB headquarters in Daltonganj. He will be produced before the ACB court.
Garhwa recorded 10 recoveries against 16 new cases in the last two days
As the recovered patients were discharged, the new Covid-19 cases recorded from the district, raised the tally to 78.
The 10 fresh cases were reported in Barwadih and Sigsiga village, and six from other villages.
All 16 are from quarantine centres and belonging to the age group of 24 to 40 years. They are returnees from Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
“A total 60 persons have recovered and the number of active cases now stands at 18. So far, no virus death has been reported in the district”, said civil surgeon NK Rajak.
Till Friday, a total of 2818 samples had been sent to the RIMS and True Net lab for tests. Of them, 78 tested positive, 2508 tested negative and the results of the remaining 232 are awaited.
Garhwa deputy commissioner Harsh Mangla on Monday said that despite the growing number of cases in the district, there was no need for panic as patients were recovering rapidly.
Mangla said all the recovered patients have been discharged from a hospital in Meral.
Police at the businessman's home in Bokaro Telegraph picture
Robbers make off with Rs 5 lakh from Bokaro home
A businessman and his family were held at gunpoint by masked robbers who made off with cash and jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh from CCL Officer Colony under Bokaro Thermal police station at 2.30am on Saturday.
The robbers held seven members of the family, including three children, at gunpoint while committing the crime.
Bermo subdivisional police officer Anjani Anjan visited the spot and assessed the situation. A dog squad was also called in. Officer in charge Vinod Kumar said raids were being conducted to nab the criminals.
The criminals spoke the local dialect and, therefore, seem to be residents of neighbouring areas.
Gautam Kumar and his brother, Abhay, told the police that the robbers barged into the house breaking open the door at the back of the house.
“The robbers, who were carrying weapons and had covered their faces, stayed in the house for about an hour and took away every single piece of jewellery. Before leaving the house, they also defecated in the garden,” said Gautam to the police officer. After the criminals had left, the victims managed to let the authorities know of the incident.
“All aspects of the incident are being investigated. According to information provided by victims, an attempt is being made to identify the robbers,” said Anjan.
