India News | Assistant Labour Commissioner in Hoshiarpur Held in Bribery Case: Punjab Vigilance Bureau
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. An Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC) posted in Hoshiarpur was arrested in a bribery case, said the Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Thursday.
Hoshiarpur, Feb 20 (PTI) An Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC) posted in Hoshiarpur was arrested in a bribery case, said the Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Thursday.
ALC Harpreet Singh, who is a Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officer, had been absconding for the past three months, officials said.
Also Read | Sonia Gandhi Admitted to Ganga Ram Hospital, Likely To Be Discharged on February 21: Sources.
He was arrested after he surrendered before a local court as his bail application was dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, they said.
The Hoshiarpur court has granted one day police remand to the Vigilance Bureau for further investigation.
A spokesperson of the bureau said that, Alka Sharma, a computer operator posted in his office, was earlier arrested in the case for accepting Rs 30,000 bribe on behalf of the labour commissioner.
The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by a person running a shop in Kashmiri Bazaar, Hoshiarpur, he said.
The complainant had told the Vigilance Bureau that he owns a jewellery shop, which he got renovated recently. Subsequently, he received a notice from the office of the Assistant Labor Commissioner.
When he visited the office, Alka informed him that he would face a substantial fine, but she could help to resolve the matter by discussing it with the ALC, the complainant alleged.
The complainant mentioned that Alka Sharma took the notice from him and went into Harpreet's office.
Shortly after, the complainant was also called into the office, where Harpreet demanded a bribe of Rs 30,000 in exchange for dismissing the notice, officials said citing the complaint.
The complainant recorded the conversation related to the bribe demand and submitted it as evidence to the Bureau.
Following a preliminary verification, the vigilance bureau team laid a trap during which the accused Alka was caught red-handed while accepting the Rs 30,000 bribe from the complainant, they said.
In another case, the bureau arrested one Jagat Ram, from Mullapur Dakha in Ludhiana, for accepting bribes amounting to Rs 42.60 lakh while falsely claiming to be a government official.
The case was registered against the accused based on a complaint filed by Rakesh Sachdeva, a resident of SBS Nagar, Pakhowal Road, Ludhiana, through the Chief Minister's Anti-Corruption Action Line,officials said.
The complainant alleged that Jagat Ram had taken a bribe of Rs 42.60 lakh from him to obtain No Objection Certificates (NOCs) that were pending with the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT).
Sachdeva, who runs a garment shop in Ludhiana, had purchased three properties in 2017, 2019, and 2022.
He had submitted all relevant documents to the LIT to secure NOCs for transferring the properties into his name but failed to obtain them, they added.
During this time, he met Jagat Ram, who introduced himself as an official of LIT and posed as a private secretary to a senior officer in Chandigarh.
The accused assured him that he could arrange the NOCs but demanded a bribe in return.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)