Face2News/Bathinda/Chandigarh
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) during its ongoing campaign against corruption in the state, on Tuesday unearthed a big scam in the office of Regional Transport Authority (RTA), Bathinda where lakhs of rupees were being collected from the public as well as processing agents for clearing files pertaining to endorsements and passing of commercial vehicles. In this regard the VB has nabbed Dinesh Kumar, Accountant, RTA Bathinda and his accomplice Raju Singh Rajji for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 1,000.
Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the VB said the above said accused have been arrested on the complainant of Harpreet Singh, resident of Bathinda. Giving details he added that the complainant has approached the VB and alleged that the above mentioned accused have demanded Rs 1,000 as a bribe to clear or endorse his ten files for renewal of files/documents etc related to different vehicles in the office of RTA. The complainant further informed that the officials in RTA office have been demanding Rs 100 per file to endorse or clear the files and about 100 files were being submitted daily by the public and various agents in this office for which they were collecting huge amounts of bribes. In this way these officials were collecting lakhs of rupees per month for accepting the documents.
The spokesperson informed that after preliminary investigation of this complaint, a VB team from Bathinda range has laid a trap and both the accused have been arrested on the spot while taking a bribe of Rs 1,000 as a bribe from the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses.
In this regard a case under prevention of corruption act has been registered against both the accused at VB police station Bathinda range. Further investigation in this case was under progress and the role of other officers/officials of this office would be probed during the investigation, he added.
