Belapur court in Navi Mumbai rejects bail plea of two APMC officers arrested in Rs 1.4 lakh graft case

Navi Mumbai: Belapur court rejected the bail application of Agricultural Produce Market Committee’s (APMC) deputy secretary Deepak Awate (40), and a sanitation officer Sameer Mhatre (55), after they were caught red-handed while allegedly accepting Rs 1.4 lakh bribe from a contractor on May 19. Both the accused have been remanded to 14 days of jail custody till June 5 and they are lodged at Taloja prison.

ACB deputy SP Dharmaraj Sonake said, “The complainant contractor was given the work order for the tender of a contract work of desilting the drainage channels in APMC market area along with annual maintenance from Oct 2025 till April 2026. The annual billing amount was Rs 11.92 lakh. Hence, the accused officers allegedly demanded Rs 1.46 lakh as 15% commission on the billing amount of Rs 9.78 lakh, excluding 18% GST. After negotiation, they settled for Rs 1.40 lakh.”

Sonake said, "On May 19 afternoon, a trap was laid on the first floor of the APMC main administrative building in the onion-potato market, sector 18, Vashi, where the offices of Awate and Mhatre are located adjacently. Mhatre was caught red-handed while accepting Rs 1.4 lakh bribe in his office from the complainant contractor. Hence, Mhatre was arrested, followed by the arrest of Awate, who was present in his adjacent office. An FIR was registered at APMC police station against the duo accused officers under the relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act for the offence of a public servant accepting or demanding bribe to perform official duty and punishment for abetment."