Senior Rajasthan police officer arrested by ACB in connection with multi-crore land scam bribe

Arrest Made

An Additional Superintendent of Police with Rajasthan's Special Operations Group, Mukesh Kumar Soni, was arrested on Sunday by the state's Anti-Corruption Bureau. Soni allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 2 crore to clear a man's name in the Udaipur Municipal Corporation land scam case.

The Trap

The ACB arrested a middleman named Sajjan Singh Jain, also known as Tatla, on Saturday while he was accepting the Rs 2 crore bribe on Soni's behalf. Officials stated that during a previous verification meeting arranged by the middleman, Soni remained silent out of fear of being recorded and instead showed a text message stating the bribe amount. Following the middleman's arrest, Soni was detained at his Balotra district residence and subsequently arrested on Sunday, with Rs 4 lakh of the recovered amount in Indian currency.

Case Background

The underlying investigation involves irregularities in the transfer of land schemes and slums to the Udaipur Municipal Corporation in 2004 by the Udaipur Improvement Trust. Urban Development minister Jhabar Singh Kharra stated in August 2024 that plots were taken over by land mafia through forged documents with the help of public officials, and former home minister Gulab Chand Kataria previously termed the matter a Rs 500-crore scam. The SOG probe into the case had previously moved between Jodhpur, Udaipur, and Ajmer units before the lead investigator himself was arrested.