A health department official was on April 29 arrested for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district, a state Anti-Corruption Bureau official said.

Dr Avinash Khare, posted as nodal officer of the Pre Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) in the office of Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO), Bilaspur, was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe from a private radiologist for operating his sonography centres and setting up a new CT Scan centre, Deputy Superintendent of Police (ACB) Ajitesh Singh said.

The complainant, Dr Rahul Jaiswal, runs two sonography centres in Bilaspur district -one near Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) hospital and another at Pendra Road , he said. "Two months ago, the accused had issued notice to Dr Jaiswal over some alleged flaws at his two facilities. When Jaiswal approached Khare for permission to set up a CT Scan centre in Bilaspur, the accused asked for a bribe of Rs 1 lakh upfront and Rs 1 lakh per year for operating the sonography centres," he said.

"He gave the first instalment of Rs 50,000 as bribe and then approached ACB on April 9. We laid a trap on Monday and nabbed Khare when he received the the second instalment of Rs 50,000. He has been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and remanded in judicial custody for 15 days," Singh said.