Kolkata: The Bengal anti-corruption branch (ACB) on Friday arrested a regional transport officer (RTO), attached to the state transport authority (STA), and an alleged middleman on Friday.The regional transport officer, currently posted at the Beltala transport office, and his accomplice were caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 90,000, which they had demanded to renew and modify a commercial bus permit under the STA, said an ACB officer.The arrests have sent shockwaves through the state transport authority, where bus operators have long complained about procedural delays and syndicate-driven corruption in permit clearances.According to ACB officers, the enforcement action was initiated following a complaint lodged by a bus operator. In his complaint, the operator claimed the RTO and the middleman initially demanded Rs 1 lakh to facilitate the clearance, renewal and replacement of his bus permit. Following negotiations, the bribe amount was settled at Rs 90,000, police said.The bus operator approached the state anti-corruption watchdog. Upon verifying the claim, a specialised ACB team laid a trap on Friday. Both the RTO and the middleman were caught during the transaction. The officers arrested the accused duo and recovered the bribe money.“A corruption case has been registered against the accused. Both were taken into custody after the trap yielded direct evidence of illegal gratification,” a senior ACB officer confirmed.Investigators are now interrogating the two accused. ACB has also launched a broader investigation to ascertain if this incident points at a larger, systematic permit-racket operating out of the Beltala office and whether other high-ranking STA officials or external agents, too, are involved.A transport department official indicated that internal registers and digital processing logs at the Beltala office were currently being audited to identify any pending files that were deliberately stalled to extort bribes from commercial operators. ACB officials confirmed that further raids and custodial interrogations were likely.
