sunil.kumar3@htlive.com
A day after a team of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested the vice-chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women and her driver in a bribe case, the duo was produced before a magistrate court in Sonepat on Sunday.
According to an ACB spokesperson, the court sent Sonia Aggarwal to judicial custody and her driver, Kulbir Beniwal, was granted one-day police custody. Beniwal was caught red-handed while accepting a graft of ₹1 lakh in lieu of disposing of a complaint against a junior basic teacher (JBT) filed by his wife.
“During remand, the ACB officials will ask him how many times before he had taken money in lieu of settling cases,” the spokesman added. Refuting the allegations of accepting graft in lieu of disposing of complaints, Aggarwal said she was falsely implicated in the case and that she will reveal the truth after coming out of jail.
An official of the ACB said they suspect Beniwal used to take money from people facing trials before the women’s commission in lieu of settling down complaints and later sending the amount to Aggarwal.
“The driver had contested the 2024 parliamentary polls as an independent from Hisar and got only 1,000 votes. He was running a YouTube channel as well. He came in contact with Aggarwal six months ago when she visited a police station in Hisar and later appointed him as her driver and personal assistant. We suspect that Beniwal had taken money from other people as well,” the ACB official said.
{{/usCountry}}“The driver had contested the 2024 parliamentary polls as an independent from Hisar and got only 1,000 votes. He was running a YouTube channel as well. He came in contact with Aggarwal six months ago when she visited a police station in Hisar and later appointed him as her driver and personal assistant. We suspect that Beniwal had taken money from other people as well,” the ACB official said.
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to the duo’s arrest, Haryana women panel chief Renu Bhatia said, “This is a sad incident that those who have been given the charge to ensure justice to females are misusing their power to gain money, adding that this shows that there is no transparency in the government.”
A team led by deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Kamaljit, who is posted in ACB at Jind, laid a trap and caught Beniwal from Hisar while accepting the bribe amount. “Later, another ACB team visited Aggarwal’s house in Sonepat’s Kharkhauda but she was not present there. She was later arrested from a rest house in Kharkhauda,” the spokesperson had added.
The JBT, Anil, who hails from Julana in Jind, had got married to sub-inspector Neelam, a resident of Rohad village in Jhajjar, said the spokesperson, adding that the sub-inspector had filed a complaint against her husband before the women’s panel.
“Aggarwal had conducted counselling of the couple on December 12 during a grievances meeting in Sonepat. Later, Aggarwal told the JBT to pay ₹1 lakh to her driver and dispose of the case. The teacher approached the ACB team and a trap was laid. The driver was arrested while taking the bribe on Aggarwal’s behalf,” said the spokesperson.