The Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested Basudev Ram, head clerk at the Chatra Sub-Divisional Officer’s office, in Hazaribag on Thursday for allegedly accepting a bribe to prepare a judgment in a pending land dispute case, according to the agency.
The arrest followed a complaint by Vilas Yadav of Hunterganj, who alleged that Ram had demanded money for writing the judgment in the matter. The complaint was verified before the ACB laid a trap operation, the report said.
ACB SP Arif Ekram said Ram was caught “red-handed” while accepting the bribe. The statement was made after the bureau completed its verification of the complaint and carried out the operation.
The case concerns a pending land dispute before the Chatra SDO office. Such offices handle sub-divisional administrative responsibilities, including proceedings that can affect land-related claims and the parties involved in them. The available report does not specify the amount allegedly demanded, the stage of the dispute or the proposed contents of the judgment.
According to the ACB, Ram was taken into custody after the trap operation and the completion of legal formalities. The bureau said further action would follow under the applicable legal process.
The arrest places the conduct of personnel involved in land-dispute administration under scrutiny. For complainants, the allegation is directly linked to the preparation of a decision in a matter that remains pending. The report does not state whether the underlying land dispute has since been decided or whether any other official has been named in connection with the case.
The ACB’s action follows a standard trap-based investigation in which a complaint is first verified before the alleged acceptance of money is recorded. In this case, the bureau attributed the arrest to its verification of Yadav’s complaint and the subsequent operation at the time Ram allegedly accepted the bribe.
Ram remains an accused in the case, and the allegation has not been established by a court. The ACB is expected to proceed with the legal action after taking him into custody.
