Corrupt' civic official forced to eat' currency notes in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: Police today registered a case against 30 activists of a local NGO for forcing an official of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to eat currency notes laced with pickle in front of TV cameras because he was allegedly corrupt.

As media was invited for the coverage, the incident was telecast by some local channels.

On the complaint by the victim Dharmin Vyas, assistant manager with professional tax department of AMC's New West Zone, Vastrapur police registered an FIR against 30-odd activists of ‘Lok Rakshak Seva Samiti'.

President of the NGO Pruthvi Bhatt was arrested on the charges of rioting and assaulting a government officer on duty, said inspector B J Sarvaiya.

"Vyas alleged that Bhatt and other activists, including women, stormed into AMC's New West Zone office and forced him to eat currency notes laced with pickle. When he resisted, Bhatt and others forcibly opened his mouth and manhandled him," said Sarvaiya.

"Bhatt was arrested immediately," the inspector added. Before his arrest, Bhatt said he had not done anything wrong and would carry out such programmes in future too to "teach lesson to officials".

"Few days back we forced an AMC official to drink sewage water to make him realise how people were suffering due to his careless attitude and corruption," Bhatt said, alleging that Vyas was corrupt.

Vyas told media persons that he was targeted for no specific reason. "I had never met these persons in my entire life....They just barged into our office and forced me to eat notes and pickle....no one from the group told me what was their grievance against me," he said.