Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) officials allegedly caught red-handed the assistant commissioner of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 for clearing a file that
Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) officials allegedly caught red-handed the assistant commissioner of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 for clearing a file that pertained to a complaint against a shop.
The complainant runs a medical shop near Bandra. Officials said that in 2014, an FDA inspector conducted regular inspection of the complainant’s medical shop and found that the registrar of pharmacists was not available in the shop and it had flouted some rules and regulations under the FDA Act of 1940 and 1945.
The inspector submitted the inspection file to assistant commissioner Pravin Mundhanda (51) of FDA zone 5. Later, FDA officials sent a show-cause notice to the complainant and asked him to submit an explanation as to why FDA should not cancel the licence of his shop.
An ACB official said, “After getting a showcause notice, the complainant submitted a written answer to the notice within a few weeks. At that time, Mundhanda called up the complainant and allegedly asked for a bribe of Rs 40,000 to close his file and not take any action against his medical shop.”
The complainant, who did not wish to give the bribe to Mundhanda, approached ACB officials, seeking help. ACB officials said, “We received a complaint from the victim a week ago. We laid a trap on September 14 to arrest the commissioner; accordingly, the complainant told the accused that he was ready to give money. The commissioner was caught red-handed while taking a bribe from the complainant worth Rs 40,000.”
