Himachal vigilance bureau arrests Punjab firm employee in bribery case
SHIMLA : The State Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau (SV&ACB) on Saturday arrested Prithvi Singh, a resident of Renuka of Sirmaur, in a bribery case involving former director of health services Dr AK Gupta.
He was produced before a district court on Sunday that sent him to five-day police custody.
Additional director-general of police, (vigilance and anti-corruption bureau) Anurag Garg said that Singh was arrested under the charges of offering ₹5 lakh bribe to the health director, who is currently on bail.
He said that Singh was summoned to the vigilance office around 8 pm for questioning. He evaded specific queries when he was shown new evidence collected by the bureau. He was later put under arrest and was taken to Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) for medical examination.
Vigilance sleuths had arrested Dr Gupta on May 20 after the surfacing of an audio in which he was purportedly heard seeking a bribe of ₹5 lakh. Searches were conducted in his offices.
The other person who was in conversation with Gupta in the 43-second audio clip was later identified as Prithvi Singh. The 46-year-old works as a frontman for medical equipment suppliers in Punjab and also has political links.
Reportedly the middleman had been in constant touch with the health officials and is said to be close to high profile political leaders. He had made several calls to bureaucrats and the political leaders on the day vigilance sleuths arrested Gupta after his audio clip surfaced.
THE POLITICAL SNOWBALL
The graft case had snowballed into a political row as it saw the Nahan legislator Rajeev Bindal stepping down as state BJP chief on “moral grounds”
The opposition took an offensive stance against the government on the issue. There were vague accusations against Bindal in the entire episode. Later, charges of scam in the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and ventilators were also levelled.
However, the government has denied all the charges and a case has been registered against the person who leveled the allegation.