Seven years after he was accused of demanding bribe, Vadodara civic body engineer booked as FSL report ‘confirms his voice’ in recording

According to the ACB, the contractor had allegedly paid Parmar Rs 1.5 lakh but the promised go-ahead was not given for the work. When the complainant approached Parmar, he had allegedly asked for the remaining installment.

Investigating officer DD Vasava told The Indian Express, “At that time, the complainant had recorded a conversation with Parmar demanding Rs 1.5 lakh balance amount. The then officers of ACB Vadodara had set up a trap as well but unfortunately, Parmar got a whiff of it and did not accept the bribe money. So, a case could not be booked. The sample of the recorded audio conversation was sent to the FSL for forensic analysis to ascertain if the tape was tampered. We received the report on Friday, seven years later… Therefore, an FIR has been lodged.”

The FSL, in its report, has stated that the conversation sent for analysis was not tampered audio and therefore, “a verified conversation”.

Vasava added that as part of the process, Parmar had earlier been served a notice to record the sample of his voice to match with the audio clip recorded by the complainant. However, Parmar has not yet responded to the notice.

Vasava said, “We have served a fresh notice after registering the FIR, asking him to record his voice sample. We have also approached a court for directions in the same but the outcome of the court proceeding is pending.”

Parmar, who is currently also part of the VMC team of officers for the ongoing Vishwamitri River Revival project for flood mitigation, was unavailable for comments on Saturday.