Wadi MC chief trapped accepting Rs20k bribe

NAGPUR: Prem Zade, chairman of Wadi Municipal Council , was trapped by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday while accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000. He belongs to the ruling BJP.


ACB officials said the complainant was a resident of Bidipeth Chhoti Khadan, Nagpur. “He is the president of a cooperative society that supplies human resources to government and semi-government institutions.

It also performs other tasks for government bodies to generate income for the society,” said the official.

The cooperative society had been awarded the work of supplying human resources to Wadi MC. The local body had been provided three civil engineers by the society. Zade cleared the salaries of these engineers for four months - from December 2018 to March 2019. He demanded a bribe of Rs 24,000 from the complainant against this. As the society chief had no intention of paying the money he approached ACB Nagpur.

ACB Nagpur appointed an officer from Bhandara to lay the trap. Meanwhile, Zade agreed to reduce the bribe amount to Rs 20,000. When he was accepting the money from the complainant he was nabbed by the ACB team. A complaint was registered against Zade in Wadi police station under Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988.

The operation was carried under the supervision of Shrikant Dhiware, superintendent of police (ACB), Nagpur, and Rajesh Duddalwar, additional SP (ACB). Deputy SP Mahesh Chate, police inspector Yogeshwar Pardhi and others participated in the operation.

Sources in Wadi MC feel incident may be the outcome of intra-party rivalry. “Zade had rubbed his party bosses the wrong way by refusing to resign from the post of chairman. As per internal arrangement of BJP, Zade was to be the chairman for 18 months while Naresh Charde was to occupy the post for next 18 months. However, Zade refused to resign even after repeated directives from party bosses,” they said.