E-Paper
Ludhiana: Man who exposed ‘bribery’ in RTA booked for extortion
Besides Satnam Singh Dhawan of Manakwal village, the VB booked Bhupinder Punj of Lohara and Rajiv Sood, alias Billa, of Ravindra Colony of Shimlapuri
Satnam Singh Dhawan of Manakwal village, who helped the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) in busting an “organised crime wherein bribe was collected from transporters” that led to the arrest of Regional Transport Authority (RTA) secretary Narinder Singh Dhaliwal last year, has himself landed in trouble. The economic offence wing of the VB has booked Dhawan and two others for “threatening and extorting money” from RTA employees.
Besides Dhawan, the VB booked Bhupinder Punj of Lohara and Rajiv Sood, alias Billa, of Ravindra Colony of Shimlapuri. The FIR has been registered on the statement of Simranjit Kaur, inspector in the economic offence wing of the Vigilance Bureau, following a comprehensive investigation. RTA employees produced their conversations with the accused, including the screenshots of their chat with the accused.
RTA employees, including clerks Ravinder Singh, Vikram Singh and Neelam, junior assistants Amandeep Singh, Jai Teg Singh, data entry clerks Dinesh Bansal and Gaurav Kumar. According to the FIR, the accused used to extort money from people on the pretext of helping them in getting their work done from the RTA. The accused used to receive documents of people from the office by threatening them.
The FIR also mentioned that the accused had filed a vigilance complaint against data entry clerk Dinesh Kumar and then allegedly demanded ₹3 lakh from him to withdraw the complaint.
On January 6, 2023, the VB had arrested Narinder Singh Dhaliwal, a PCS officer posted as the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) secretary in Ludhiana, for allegedly running an organised crime to collect bribe from transporters on the complaint of Satnam Singh Dhawan. Dhawan had filed his complaint on the chief minister’s Anti-Corruption Action Line.
The Vigilance Bureau is also scanning the role of a lawyer, a stamp vendor and several others in the matter.
