Panipat MC’S chief sanitary inspector held on graft charges

KARNAL: Sudheer Kumar, the chief sanitary inspector of Panipat Municipal Corporation, has been arrested by the state vigilance bureau for taking a bribe of Rs 13.7 lakh from a private company to clear its pending dues.

According to vigilance bureau officials, Sudheer Kumar had demanded 10% commission as bribe to clear the pending bills of Rs 1.37 crore of private company IND Sanitation Solutions, which has been given the contract of cleaning roads in Panipat town.

Narsingh Ahlawat, the deputy superintendent of the vigilance bureau’s Rohtak range who led the raiding team, said that the complainant was given the tender to ensure that roads in Panipat’s MC limits were clean. An employee of the company, however, approached the bureau to complain against Sudheer Kumar.

The complainant brought along audio call recordings in which Kumar was heard demanding the bribe to clear the dues from the accounts branch of the Panipat MC.

The Rohtak division of the vigilance bureau constituted a team that caught Sudheer Kumar red-handed in Panipat on Monday night in the presence of duty magistrate Krishan Kumar.

A case was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Panipat mayor Avneet Kaur said, “This should not have happened. We have zero tolerance for corruption. We will not tolerate any such act by any employee.”

It is learnt that the accused had been given extension after retirement.