Man held for accepting Rs 30,000 bribe to help secure fire NOC from Rajkot civic body
Rajkot (PTI): A man has been arrested for allegedly accepting a Rs 30,000 bribe to get a fire NOC from the Rajkot civic body for a structure being erected for a property expo, officials said on Saturday.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau laid a trap and detained accused Kaushik Piprotar, a sales executive with a firm selling mechanical appliances for fire protection systems, as he accepted the bribe on Friday, the agency said in a release.
Piprotar had demanded the bribe to help the complainant secure a non-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) for a temporary dome for ‘Property Expo 2024’, the ACB said.
“The accused got in touch with the complainant and claimed that he had contacts with officials in the Rajkot Fire Department. Piprotar said the complainant would have to pay Rs 30,000 over and above the official legal fees if he wanted the fire NOC,” the ACB said.
The accused also claimed that he would make “financial transactions” with officials in RMC's fire department and get the work done, ACB said.
“Since the complainant did not want to pay the bribe, he contacted the ACB. The accused was caught red-handed accepting the bribe of Rs 30,000,” said the anti-corruption agency, adding that a case has been registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A little over two months ago, the then in-charge chief fire officer of RMC was caught by the ACB for accepting a bribe of Rs 1.8 lakh to issue a fire NOC to a building in the city.
Earlier, the RMC’s fire department had come under severe criticism after a massive blaze at a game zone killed 27 persons, including children, on May 25. It was found that the private recreation facility did not have a fire NOC.
Several RMC officials had been arrested in connection with the game zone tragedy.
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Supreme Court rejects plea for reverting to ballots in elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.
Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.
When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".
The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.
"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.
After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.
The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.
"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.
There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.
"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".
Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.
"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.
When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."
The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.
The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.
"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.
