Aheri nominated councillor held taking Rs 1.20 lakh bribe from contractor

Amol Vilasrao Gudelliwar, a nominated councillor of Aheri Nagar Panchayat, was caught red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 1,20,000 from a contractor by the Gondia team of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday, October 15, 2026. According to the bureau, the action took place at his hardware shop in Aheri. Gudelliwar is 40 years old and lives in Ward No. 9, Raje Vishweshwar Maharaj Chowk, Bus Stop Road, Aheri. The case relates to Aheri taluka in Gadchiroli district.

The complainant is a 33-year-old man who works as an electrical contractor. He has his own contracting firm and a contractor's licence, and also runs an electrical shop in Aheri. A contracting firm owned by a friend of his had received the work of laying additional service cables in Aheri under the Nagarotthan scheme 2025-26. The sanctioned tender amount was Rs 9,93,909 for the work in Wards 1 to 10 and Rs 9,93,856 for Wards 11 to 17, a total of Rs 19,87,765.

On the friend's behalf, the complainant entered into an agreement and completed the work in Wards 11 to 17. The contractor for Wards 1 to 10 was also his friend, so he supervised that work too. After receiving the work-start orders for both jobs, he completed them within the stipulated period of 180 days, and the full bills for both were cleared.

According to the complaint, after the bills were cleared, councillor Amol Gudelliwar came to the complainant's shop and said he himself had obtained these Nagarotthan scheme works for Aheri from the District Planning Committee in Gadchiroli and that they were from his quota. In return, he repeatedly demanded 15 per cent of the total bill, or Rs 3 lakh. The complainant said that, under compulsion, he paid the accused Rs 30,000 in cash on August 5, 2026.

Even after this, the accused called the complainant on WhatsApp and demanded the remaining Rs 2,70,000 as bribe. Unwilling to pay, the complainant filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Gondia.

To verify the complaint, the complainant was sent to the accused's hardware shop on October 15, 2026, with a panch witness and a voice recorder. According to the bureau, the accused demanded a bribe of Rs 2,70,000 there and asked him to bring as much money as he could shortly. When the complainant said he had Rs 1,20,000 at the moment, the accused asked him to bring that amount to the shop shortly.

The same day, the complainant was sent again to the accused's shop with the voice recorder, the panch witness and the bribe money. The accused accepted the Rs 1,20,000 from the complainant and was caught red-handed at that moment. The accused has been taken into custody.

The process of registering a case against the accused public servant is under way at Aheri police station in Gadchiroli district. According to the bureau, the accused will be arrested as soon as the case is registered.

The trap was laid by Police Inspector Arvind Raut, with Deputy Superintendent of Police Nilesh Lodhi as supervising officer, both of ACB Gondia. The team included ASI Chandrakant Karpe, Head Constables Sanjaykumar Bohare and Mangesh Kahalkar, and police constables Santosh Shende, Santosh Bopche, Prashant Sonawane and Deepak Batbarwe. Guidance was provided by Digambar Pradhan, Superintendent of Police, ACB Nagpur, and Additional Superintendents of Police Madhuri Baviskar and Vijay Mahulkar.

The ACB has appealed to citizens to contact the bureau if they have any information about corruption or a complaint against a public servant demanding a bribe. The Gondia office is near the railway gate on Tiroda Ring Road, and its phone numbers are 07182-251203 and 9209041064. The Nagpur and Mumbai offices can also be contacted, as well as the toll-free number 1064.