Two officials in Andijan province have been detained while accepting a bribe, the State Security Service said. The suspects are a deputy mayor of Pakhtaabad district and an employee of the district branch of the Chamber of State Cadastres.
The service said the two colluded and won the trust of a man who intended to start a business. They allegedly demanded $100,000 in exchange for a promise to ensure he won an online auction to buy a 50-sotka (0.5-hectare) plot at a below-market price. The land was held in reserve by the district mayoriyat.
They were detained as they accepted $30,000 through an intermediary, the service said.
A criminal case has been opened under clauses “a” and “g” of Part 4 of Article 168 of the Criminal Code, which covers fraud on an especially large scale using an official position. An investigation is under way.
Earlier cases involving deputy mayors have also been reported. In October, a deputy mayor of Kasansay district in Namangan province was detained while accepting a bribe of 65 million soums. A deputy mayor of Tashkent district in Tashkent province was named a suspect in a case of receiving $25,000 from a businessman.
