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Village panchayat officer held for taking bribe
According to the village head, the officer was demanding ₹20,000 as bribe for approval of payment for construction work and refused to forward it to the block development officer until the cash was paid.
A village panchayat officer posted at Manda development block here was caught red-handed by the vigilance team while accepting a bribe of ₹20,000 from the village head here on Wednesday. The officer was demanding bribe for releasing payment of a construction work carried out in village Sikra through panchayat funds. An FIR has been registered against the accused officer under Prevention of Corruption Act and he has been arrested, vigilance officials said.
According to reports, head of Sikra village Shrinath registered a complaint with the vigilance officials against Omprakash Yadav, village panchayat officer at Manda development block. In his complaint, Shrinath said that levelling of ground at primary school in the village was carried out through panchayat funds and after evaluating, engineer Moolchand Verma estimated its cost to be ₹77,635.
The file for payment of the work was pending with Yadav.
According to the village head, Yadav was demanding ₹20,000 as bribe for approval of payment and refused to forward it to the block development officer until the cash was paid.
The vigilance team carried out confidential investigations and found the allegations to be true.
On Wednesday, the team reached Manda and arrested Yadav while he was accepting the bribe near his office. The vigilance officials said the accused will be produced before the anti-corruption court at Varanasi on Thursday.
