Gurugram: A zonal tax officer and his clerk from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) were apprehended at their office in Civil Lines on Wednesday for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹50,000 to rectify a person’s property tax bill, according to officials from the Haryana anti-corruption bureau. The tax officer, 44-year-old Sameer Srivastava, was assigned to Zone-II, while his clerk, 40-year-old Deepak Kumar, was a contractual employee hired through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited. A raiding team, led by DSP Meena Kumari from the ACB Faridabad wing, first arrested Kumar after he accepted the bribe, then apprehended Srivastava upon Kumar’s revelation that he had acted on the officer’s instructions. The complainant, Krishan Sachdeva, a resident of Sector-7, had been struggling for four months to rectify his inflated tax bill without success. Upon approaching the ACB a week prior, an internal inquiry was initiated, establishing prima facie evidence of a bribe demand of ₹1 lakh from Sachdeva. Subsequently, an FIR was filed against the duo under Sections 7, 13(1), and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The DSP leading the operation stated that the complainant withdrew Rs.50,000 and handed it to the clerk, with the promise of paying the remaining amount the next day due to ATM withdrawal limits. Following the exchange, both the clerk and Srivastava were arrested. A senior MCG official expressed unawareness of Sachdeva’s grievance and announced the suspension of the tax officer and termination of the clerk’s contract, pledging cooperation with the ACB in the investigation and resolution of the complainant’s issue, emphasizing zero tolerance for such corrupt practices.
