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Mohali: Suspended ITI principal held for demanding ₹50,000 bribe
Offered a Ludhiana resident an instructor’s job in exchange for the money before he was suspended from the ITI two weeks ago
The Vigilance Bureau on Monday arrested a suspended principal of the Industrial Training Institute (Women), Phase 5, for demanding a bribe of ₹50,000 from a Ludhiana resident for helping him land an instructor’s job in the institute.
The accused, Shamsher Singh Purkhalvi, was suspended from the institute two weeks ago following a slew of complaints against him.
Investigating officer Jasbir Kaur said Purkhalvi made the demand before he was suspended, as per the complaint by Hardeep Singh, a resident of Samrala, Ludhiana.
Purkhalvi was arrested from his residence in Zirakpur on Monday after Hardeep approached the anti-corruption helpline, recently launched by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
In his complaint, Hardeep stated that he had applied for the instructor’s post under the reserved category. In a subsequent interaction, Purkhalvi, who is also from the reserved category, told him that eligible candidates were willing to pay even ₹1 lakh for the post, but since he was from the reserved category, he can pay ₹50,000.
Hardeep said the principal sought the bribe for a job that would pay him ₹15,000 per month on outsourcing basis, following which he filmed Purkhalvi while he made the demand and forwarded it to the anti-corruption helpline number.
“The complaint reached us and we registered an FIR against Purkhalvi, before arresting him from his flat in Zirakpur on Monday. Recruitments of instructors at the institute are under the purview of the principal,” Kaur said.
A case under Section 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against Purkhalvi at the Vigilance Bureau’s station in Sector 68. If proven, the charge entails imprisonment up to five years with fine. He will be produced in court on Tuesday.
Notably, the accused was also booked in 2012 in a disproportionate assets case, while he was an instructor at ITI Lalru, but he was acquitted later.
Also the president of NGO Dalit Chetna Manch, Punjab, Purkhalvi had won the Dr Ambedkar Fellowship Award in 2009. His wife, Baljit Kaur Purkhalvi, is a former councillor of the Mohali municipal corporation.
His arrest comes a week after the Vigilance Bureau nabbed a section officer of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) for accepting a ₹1.5 lakh bribe from a booth owner to issue him the no-dues certificate (NDC).
