Sarpanch among 4 held as VB busts job racket
The men belonging to Amritsar and Tarn Taran confess they got four persons recruited in BSF after taking ₹3 lakh each
AMRITSAR : The Punjab vigilance bureau on Thursday claimed to have unearthed a recruitment scam with the arrest of four members of the racket, including a sarpanch and an employee of the state health department.
The arrested accused confessed to have got recruited four persons in the Border Security Force by accepting Rs 3 lakh bribe each, officials said.
They are Pritpal Singh, who is posted as a multipurpose heath worker at the primary health centre (PHC), Dhotian, in Tarn Taran district; Harpal Singh, sarpanch of Kadgill village in Tarn Taran; Malkiat Singh of Varpal village in Amritsar and Sukhwant Singh of Jhite Kalan village in Amritsar.
The officials said the racket kingpin has been identified as Dominic Sahota, who is presently lodged in the Ropar jail in connection with a robbery and kidnapping case. Sahota used to pose as an assistant commandant in the BSF while his father Govinder Singh impersonated as an inspector, they said.
Vigilance senior superintendent of police (SSP) Parampal Singh said one Barinderpal Singh of Tarn Taran town had lodged a complaint that Pritpal and Malkiat were demanding Rs 3.5 lakh for getting his relative recruited as a helper in the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). A trap was laid and Pritpal and Malkiat were apprehended while accepting Rs 50,000 as first instalment of the bribe by a team led by Tarn Taran DSP Harjinder Singh.
He added, “Malkiat confessed that accused Sukhwant, who operated from Ludhiana, was to be given Rs 3 lakh from the total bribe amount for the recruitment. Malkiat has also told us that he had already got recruited four persons in the BSF through Dominic in 2019. Dominic had taken Rs 2.5 lakh from each aspirant while Malkiat accepted Rs 30,000 from each.”
Dominic, his father, brother and three others were arrested by the Mohali police in January. Three illegal weapons, uniforms of security services, four vehicles, Rs 2.5 lakh, laptops and fake ID cards were recovered from them.
The SSP said they will bring Dominic on production warrant from the Ropar jail to identify the four persons recruited in the BSF through bribes.
“It appears there are many more big fish in the scam. Our teams are working to reach them. We are also questioning accused Malkiat and Sukhwant as they are suspected to be involved in several more recruitments in various government departments. We have also found six more persons from whom the arrested accused have accepted Rs 1 to 3 lakh bribe for getting them recruited in government departments. The statements of the six have also been recorded.”
A case under section 7 of the Prevention of the Corruption Act, sections 420 (fraud) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code was registered in Amritsar.