The Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Saturday arrested Batala sub divisional magistrate and municipal corporation commissioner Vikramjeet Singh Panthey after he was caught accepting a bribe of ₹50,000 and unaccounted cash amounting to ₹13.5 lakh was recovered from him, police said.
Acting on the complaint of Batala resident Amarpal Singh, the police registered a case against Panthey on Friday under Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act at the VB’s Amritsar range police station.
“Complainant Amarpal Singh said that he had carried out road repair in the area under the jurisdiction of the Batala municipal corporation for which two bills of ₹1,87,483 and ₹1,85,369, totalling to ₹3,72,852, were generated. When he went to the MC office to collect the payment and met the commissioner, he was told to pay 10% of the bills, which amounted to ₹37,000. For this, he was asked to meet sub divisional officer (SDO) Rohit Uppal,” a police spokesperson said.
Amarpal had been hired to arrange a light and sound show in Batala for which ₹1,81,543 was due. “In this way, a total amount of ₹5,54,395 was due. When he met SDO Uppal for the payment, he was told that the commissioner’s orders had to be followed. During a meeting, the MC commissioner agreed to take 9% as bribe to release the due amount,” the spokesperson said.
The complainant did not want to pay the bribe, so he visited the Gurdaspur VB office and the trap was laid. “Panthey was caught red-handed accepting a bribe of ₹50,000 by the investigating officer in the presence of two government official witnesses. Upon further search, an unaccounted amount of ₹13,50,000 were recovered. The case is under investigation and the accused will be produced before the competent court,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The complainant did not want to pay the bribe, so he visited the Gurdaspur VB office and the trap was laid. “Panthey was caught red-handed accepting a bribe of ₹50,000 by the investigating officer in the presence of two government official witnesses. Upon further search, an unaccounted amount of ₹13,50,000 were recovered. The case is under investigation and the accused will be produced before the competent court,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}