Bhairahawa, July 28

Officials at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority contact office Butwal today detained an engineer with the Urban Development Office of Rupandehi on the charge of accepting bribe.

A team from the Butwal-based CIAA contact office led by its chief DSP Ram Prakash Shah arrested Chief Engineer Suresh Thakur of the Urban Development Office, Rupandehi, from BarmeliTole of Bhairahawa over the allegation that he had received millions of rupees in bribe from contractors.

According to DSP Shah, Thakur’s wife Anita has also been detained.

“She was arrested from Manahari of Hetauda  with 1.2 million rupees in cash and cash deposit vouchers of different banks by a team from the CIAA’s Hetauda-based contact office,” informed the DSP.

According to sources, Thakur had sent his wife home in Birgunj with the bribe money he had received from contractors of different projects.

Further, DSP Shah informed that preparations were under way to bring the engineer’s wife to Rupandehi.

Now, Thakur is being kept in detention at the CIAA’s Butwal-based contact office, while his wife is at the CIAA’s Hetauda-based contact office.

According to the DSP, Thakur, in his preliminary statement, maintained that he had sent his wife with the cash for his mother’s treatment. “As our investigation is on and the report from Hetauda hasn’t reached us, we can get additional information only after that,” he said.