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Arrested 172 accused in 129 bribery cases in 2022, says Punjab vigilance bureau
The Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) revealed that during the year, apart from other departments, 30 personnel of Punjab Police, 13 from the revenue department, 5 power department and 4 local bodies were nabbed red-handed while taking bribes in different trap cases, since January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022
The Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) has arrested a total of 172 accused in 129 bribery cases, which include 83 accused in 65 trap cases and 89 persons in 64 online complaints during the last year, VB chief director-cum-ADGP Varinder Kumar informed this on Sunday.
“The VB in its campaign against corruption on the directions of the chief minister Bhagwant Mann, has set a record in registration of bribery cases, arrests of accused in corruption, registration of criminal cases and arrests made thereof besides filling of vigilance enquiries (VE) and suspects involved in these probes as compared to the last two years,” he added.
He revealed that during the year, apart from other departments, 30 personnel of Punjab Police, 13 from the revenue department, 5 power department and 4 local bodies were nabbed red-handed while taking bribes in different trap cases, since January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022.
To encourage people to come forward and report corruption in state public offices, Chief Minister’s Anti-Corruption Action Line was launched on March 23 last year, which according to Varinder Kumar has shown notable results.
Giving details about the performance of the VB, the chief director informed that VB had registered 135 criminal cases against 371 accused which includes 35 gazetted officers (GOs), 163 non-gazetted officials (NGOs) and 173 private persons. Apart from this, 103 vigilance enquiries have also been registered against 139 suspects to probe corruption complaints which include 35 GOs, 58 NGOs and 46 private persons in the last year.
Further according to VB chief director special courts have sentenced 30 persons accused in 19 different vigilance cases registered under the prevention of corruption act and awarded imprisonment for up to five years.
VB chief informed that four former ministers Sadhu Singh Dharmsot, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Sundar Sham Arora, former chairman improvement trust Amritsar, Dinesh Bassi, Sanjay Popli, IAS, chief forest conservator Parveen Kumar, IFS, forest conservators Vishal Chohan, IFS, and Amit Chohan, IFS, DFO Guramanpreet Singh, contractor Harminder Singh Hummy, AIG Ashish Kapoor, PPS, general manager PUNSUP Naveen Kumar Garg, district commander Punjab Home Guards Nirmala and platoon commander Anmol Moti, ETO Sandeep Singh and contractors Telu Ram, Yashpal and Ajaypal were booked and arrested in different cases during the year.
CM’s Anti-Corruption Action Line receives 3,72,175 complaints
A total of 3,72,175 complaints have been received last year on the CM’s anti-corruption action line facility for the general public, of which 6,407 complaints were received with audio or video recordings and 294 complaints pertaining to the vigilance bureau.
He informed that 64 FIRs had been registered against 26 civilians, 27 police officials and 29 civil departments based on online complaints received in which 89 persons have been arrested/bailed out so far.
Apart from this, 2,970 complaints were found to be related to other departments which have been forwarded to the departments concerned. A total of 3,143 complaints were found irrelevant, junk posts, etc.
