Two officials of transport dept arrested taking ₹1-lakh bribe

CHANDIGARH: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested two officials of the Punjab transport department from Chandigarh while accepting a bribe of ₹1 lakh (₹50,000 each) from an employee for giving him clean chit in a departmental probe.

A case has been registered on the basis of a complaint from an employee, Sheetal Singh, who was dismissed from service about a year-and-half ago, officials said. He approached the department’ s special secretary, Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, appealing against his dismissal. Dhaliwal cancelled the order and ordered a re-probe, said CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal.

Officials said department superintendent Rajeev Kumar and clerk Jaswinder Singh were arrested from the Punjab civil secretariat. They were posted in the office of special secretary, transport, Sector 9.

Both had allegedly threatened the complainant that if he refused to pay the bribe, they would ensure issuance of adverse orders against him, the spokesperson said, adding that the deal was struck at ₹1 lakh.

The complainant approached the CBI against the officials following which the agency laid a trap and both the officials were caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of ₹50,000 each.

Searches were conducted at Kumar’s house in Chandigarh and Singh’s residence in Mohali and property related documents were seized. The accused will be produced in the court of special CBI judge at district courts in Chandigarh on Tuesday.