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Court denies bail to VMC engineer in corruption case

Vadodara: A sessions court here denied bail to the executive engineer of Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) Mukund Patel on Thursday. Patel was arrested on August 31 by anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on August 31 for accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh for clearing bills of a private cleaning services provider.

Pleading innocence in the case, Patel had sought bail on September 25. His bail application was opposed on the grounds that he had been caught red-handed while accepting the bribe and there are evidences against him. ACB sleuths through an affidavit argued that besides the bribe amount, additional cash amounting to Rs 39,500 and a diary was found from Patel.

“The diary had names of certain contractors with figures written beside them. Since the ACB is questioning these contractors, Patel may stop them appearing before the agency or ask them to hide the truth using his power,” the district government pleader Anil Desai argued adding that he always had an intention of indulging in corrupt practices since he had started demanding the bribe from the complainant since July 25.

The affidavit filed by ACB also stated that if Patel will be released on bail, he will not cooperate with investigation as his voice spectrograph test is yet to be done.

The court of additional sessions judge K M Sojitra upheld the arguments of ACB and the government pleader and turned down Patel’s bail application.

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