Punjab vigilance nabs assistant town planner, 2 others for taking ₹8 lakh bribe

Punjab vigilance bureau on Wednesday formally arrested Ravi Pankaj Sharma, an assistant town planner Jalandhar and his two accomplices while accepting a bribe of ₹8 lakh.

Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) on Wednesday formally arrested Ravi Pankaj Sharma, an assistant town planner (ATP) Jalandhar and his two accomplices while accepting a bribe of ₹8 lakh.

The VB flying squad took them into custody from a marriage palace in Jalandhar on Tuesday night. (Representational Photo)

Other two arrested accused have been identified as Arvind Sharma, a local BJP leader and Kunal Kohli, Shiv Sena leader in Jalandhar. Another Shiv Sena activist Ashish Arora is on the run. The VB flying squad took them into custody from a marriage palace in Jalandhar on Tuesday night.

A VB spokesperson said complainant Narinder Singh, the director of Castle Heritage Company, a resident of Bath Kalan village in Jalandhar district, had constructed the ‘Bath Castle’, a marriage palace, at Jalandhar in 2005 after approval of a map plan from the Municipal Corporation (MC) Jalandhar.

The complainant has informed the VB that he received a letter on January 20 from ATP Ravi in which he wrote that the MC has received a complaint according to which Bath Castle had been illegally constructed without the approval of MC Jalandhar. The assistant town planner directed complainant to submit the approved map plan and completion certificate of the marriage palace within three days.

The VB said complainant met accused ATP, who showed him a complaint made by private persons Kunal Kohli, Ashish Arora and Arvind Sharma.

“The accused ATP advised the complainant that these private persons would not withdraw the complaint without taking money and ₹15 lakh would have to be paid to settle this matter. Meanwhile, Ravi Pankaj Sharma arranged a meeting with accused Kunal Kohli, who demanded ₹20 lakh to withdraw the complaint,” the spokesperson said.

The complainant further informed the VB that the deal was settled for ₹ 10 lakh and Ravi Pankaj Sharma had already taken ₹2 lakh from him in two instalments and demanded the remaining ₹8 lakh from him.

At this, the VB’s flying Squad-1 team from Mohali laid a trap and arrested the said ATP Ravi Pankaj Sharma and two others red handed while accepting the bribe of ₹8 lakh. The VB said accused ATP tried to run away, but he was overpowered. The case has been registered under Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.

The spokesperson further said the vigilance team searched the house of the said accused Kunal Kohli and recovered a revolver, five cartridges, ATMs of several banks and two press identification cards. Apart from this, several files having fake complaints to be made against various persons, have also been recovered from his car.

“It appear that the accused used to collect bribes after handling fake complaints against common people and used to settle them with mutual agreement by taking bribes,” the VB said. The accused were produced in the local court and were sent to five-day police remand to the VB.