2 employees held, RTA staff go on pen-down strike in Haryana

ROHTAK: The police suspicion that regional transport authority (RTA) employees are involved in the alleged racket of letting overloaded trucks pass through the city in return of bribes led to widescale resentment among the RTA staff on Friday after two employees were picked up by the police for interrogation.

At around 11 am, a CIA team of the Rohtak Police reached the SDM office and took RTA assistant Vinay Kumar and clerk Sumit in custody. While the rest of the employees protested, the cops carried on with their task and took the two employees to police station.

Meanwhile, angry employees at the RTA offices across Haryana observed a pen down strike against the police’s move, alleging their colleagues were served no prior notice by the police to join the investigation.

The whole drama comes in the wake of the alleged racket busted by Rohtak police wherein it arrested two people, including an RTA official, for taking Rs 3,000 bribe per month per district from overloaded trucks to let them bypass the city.

The police had said the members involved in the racket charged the money in the name of RTA, raising suspicion of collusion of RTA employees in the racket.

Investigating the role of more RTA staff in the racket, the police had picked the two on Friday.

However, the two employees were released two hours later after registering their statement and giving notices to them to join the investigation, whenever needed.

Asked if the employees were released due to the pressure of the protesting RTA employees, Rohtak SP Pankaj Nain said, “There was no pressure. The employees were called to record their statement. In future, too, we can pick them up if there is need for interrogation.”

AFTER COPS BUSTED A RACKET IN ROHTAK, THEY SUSPECT THAT RTA EMPLOYEES ALLOW OVERLOADED TRUCKS TO PASS WITHOUT FINE