Overview
- FDA clerk Raju (Rajendra) Dherange was arrested inside the department’s Mantralaya office on February 12 after allegedly demanding Rs 50,000 and accepting Rs 35,000 to influence a medical-store licence suspension.
- Dherange has been remanded in police custody until February 16 as investigators examine an additional Rs 42,000 recovered from his office, which exceeds the secretariat’s Rs 10,000 cash-entry limit.
- ACB officials say they will scrutinize call data records and assets and record statements of others in the section to determine whether the bribery involved a wider network.
- FDA minister Narhari Zirwal has denied any link to the case and said he will resign if evidence ties him to the alleged bribery, as opposition leaders demand his removal and a broader probe.
- Parallel ACB actions included arrests of two gram revenue officers in Palghar over a sand-transport bribe, a tehsil revenue assistant in Nagpur for a land-records payment, and an FIR against a gram panchayat officer in Thane over a deed transfer demand.