Surat: The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Monday arrested a security officer of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) for allegedly demanding and accepting a Rs 25,000 bribe from a civic employee.The accused, Shailesh Manilal Parekh, a Class-III security officer is attached to the SMC’s watch and ward department at Tapipura.According to the ACB, the complainant, an SMC employee, approached the bureau after Parekh demanded Rs 25,000. The employee’s wife is pregnant and requires frequent medical treatment, prompting him to occasionally leave duty to accompany her for medical consultations.The ACB alleged that Parekh demanded the money in exchange for allowing the employee to leave during duty hours and refraining from marking him absent or issuing a memo for such absences.Unwilling to pay the alleged bribe, the complainant approached the ACB. Acting on the complaint, officials laid a trap.During the operation, Parekh accepted Rs 25,000 from the complainant. He was caught by the ACB team while accepting the money in his chamber on the SMC premises in Mughlisara. The entire amount accepted as a bribe was recovered from Parekh.According to ACB sources, Parekh joined the SMC in 2017 and was drawing a monthly salary of around Rs 84,000.A case has been registered under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The trap was laid by police inspector S D Dhobi of the Surat Rural ACB police station.The ACB is conducting further investigation to determine whether Parekh had demanded money from other civic employees under similar circumstances.
