Ahmedabad: Two days after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Ahmedabad chief fire officer Amitkumar Dongre and an alleged middleman in a Rs 36,000 bribery case, investigators said they were still awaiting records from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) relating to fire-safety clearances issued during Dongre’s nearly two-year tenure.A senior ACB officer said the agency had sought details of fire no-objection certificates (NOCs) and related approvals granted during Dongre’s tenure but had not yet received the information.“Dongre and the alleged middleman are on remand, and the information is required urgently for verification and to assess the extent of corruption, if any,” the officer said.The agency is expected to approach AMC again on Monday to expedite the process. Investigators want to determine whether the alleged bribery arrangement was confined to the six NOCs linked to the trap case or extended to other fire-safety clearances as well.Dongre, 47, and alleged middleman Bhavsinh Zala, 31, were arrested on Friday after the ACB laid a trap near Vijay Crossroads in Memnagar. According to the agency, Zala was caught accepting Rs 36,000 from a complainant seeking fire-safety NOCs for six buildings. ACB alleged that Rs 6,000 was demanded for each clearance.Investigators said the complainant, a fire-safety officer in Ahmedabad, had applied for the NOCs through the state govt portal. He later approached the Vadodara city ACB police station, following which a trap was organised in the presence of independent witnesses.ACB alleged that after receiving the money, Zala contacted Dongre, and their conversation suggested that the chief fire officer had authorised the demand and collection of the bribe.Officials are also probing whether Dongre had allegedly developed a network of middlemen to collect commissions for facilitating fire-safety approvals.The case has drawn renewed attention to corruption allegations in fire-safety clearances. In Aug 2024, Rajkot’s then acting chief fire officer Anil Maru was arrested for allegedly accepting a Rs 1.8 lakh bribe to grant a fire NOC. Maru had taken charge after the arrest of former chief fire officer Ilesh Kher in connection with the TRP Game Zone fire tragedy of May 2024 that claimed 33 lives.
