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3 PCL engineers suspended
THE UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) management today suspended three engineers after the anti-corruption sleuths caught them red-handed taking bribe from a farmhouse owner in Kakori area on Tuesday.
THE UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) management today suspended three engineers after the anti-corruption sleuths caught them red-handed taking bribe from a farmhouse owner in Kakori area on Tuesday.
LESA engineers, who were abstaining from work in support of the Abhiyanta Sangh, which was defending of the accused officials, however agreed to resume duty from Saturday after the Sangh found itself cornered on the issue. UPPCL chairman, AK Khurana asked the Abhiyanta Sangh leaders to work for improving department’s image instead of defending corrupt officers.
The suspended officials include SDO (Kakori), Ram Surat Yadav, assistant engineer (raid), Vineet Rastogi, and junior engineer Sunil Kumar Dwivedi.
UPPCL’s IG (Vigilance), OP Dixit had suspended inspector Ram Magan Pandey and four constables on Wednesday itself after they managed to flee before the anti-corruption officials could arrest them.
Anti-corruption department’s deputy superintendent Shyamji Tripathi and his team had arrested Yadav and Dwivedi while accepting bribe of Rs 75,000 from a farmhouse owner, Sayed Rafat at Kakori. However, the AE, inspector (vigilance) and four constables managed to escape. According to Rafat, Yadav had come to his farmhouse along with a team of vigilance squad and asked him to pay Rs 75,000 as penalty for allegedly drawing power illegally. Rafat reported the matter to the anti-corruption department, which caught the accused red-handed.
Earlier, the Abhiyanta Sangh had claimed that the engineers were implicated and demanded their release and withdrawal of cases against them. Responding to its call, all the LESA engineers had stopped working.
Khurana is said to have rebuffed the Abhiyanta Sangh leaders when they went to meet him on Friday evening and asked them to ensure that engineers resumed work immediately. He told them to improve department’s image and let the law take its own course as far as the arrest of engineers was concerned.
The Abhiyanta Sangh gave him a written assurance that all engineers would return to work from Saturday.
According to sources, Khurana put some tough questions to the Abhiyanta Sangh leaders, who found it difficult to reply. He asked why the vigilance inspector and the constables ran away from the spot if they were not guilty.
He also asked them why the checking report, which the Abhiyanta Sangh claimed was filled after inspection of consumer’ connection not was not signed by the SDO and the JE. Sources said the report was fake and it had been prepared only after the two engineers were arrested.
