Two Warora panchayat officials detained by ACB over Rs 3 lakh bribe for bar NOC

An allegation of taking a Rs 3 lakh bribe for granting a gram panchayat no-objection certificate (NOC) to build a bar and restaurant in Warora taluka of Chandrapur district has come to light. The Chandrapur team of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) detained gram panchayat officer Pandurang Pende and extension officer Pranav Bakshi in a trap operation. The action was carried out in November 2026.

According to the ACB, Pende is 48 years old and is the gram panchayat officer at the Nagri gram panchayat office in Warora taluka. Bakshi, 51, is an extension officer (panchayat) at the Warora panchayat samiti. Both are gazetted government officers, and both are accused of demanding and accepting a bribe.

The case concerns a 37-year-old complainant. A farm is held in the names of the complainant and their brother, where they wanted to build a bar and restaurant. The gram panchayat's NOC was required for the construction. It is alleged that Pende demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh to issue the certificate, for himself and for his senior officer Bakshi.

The complainant was unwilling to pay such a large sum, and therefore went directly to the ACB's Chandrapur office and filed a formal complaint on November 2, 2026.

Given the seriousness of the complaint, the ACB team verified the bribe demand on November 4 and 5 in the presence of independent witnesses. The verification took place at Anandwan Chowk in Warora and later at the panchayat samiti office. According to the ACB, it emerged that the accused, Pende and Bakshi, settled on Rs 3 lakh against their initial demand of Rs 5 lakh and agreed to this in front of the witnesses.

On Thursday, November 6, 2026, the ACB team then laid a trap under a pre-arranged plan. As agreed, the accused Pende took Rs 3 lakh from the complainant at Khambala village in the presence of the witnesses. As soon as the money was in his hand, the ACB team immediately detained both Pende and his senior officer Bakshi.

The operation was carried out under the guidance of Dr Digambar Pradhan, Superintendent of Police, ACB Nagpur, and Additional Superintendents of Police Madhuri Baviskar and Vijay Mahulkar. It was executed by a team of Chandrapur ACB Deputy Superintendent of Police Anil Jittawar, Police Inspector Tejram Meshram, and head constables Hivraj Neware and Ravikant Ingle. The team also included police constables Amol Sidam, Rakesh Jambhulkar, Pradip Tadam and Mahesh Mahurpawar, woman police constable Sima Jhade, and driver police constables Satish Sidam and Sandip Kawrase.

The process of registering a case at Warora police station is under way, and the arrests of the accused are being recorded. For now, both have been detained.

The ACB has appealed to the public that anyone with information on corruption, or whose public servant demands a bribe, should contact the ACB's Chandrapur office or the toll-free number 1064.