Vigilance Bureau arrests patwari for accepting Rs 34.70 lakh bribe

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 26

The Ludhiana Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested patwari Gurwinder Singh, posted at revenue segment Pirubanda, Ludhiana (East), for obtaining Rs 34.70 lakh in bribe

He surrendered before the VB (Ludhiana range) after the High Court rejected his bail application.

In this corruption case, the brother and father of the patwari and his agent Nikku have also been booked for conspiring with him.

Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the state VB said the case was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by Babbu Tanwar, a resident of Rampura Phul town of Bathinda district, on the Chief Minister’s Anti Corruption Action Line. The complainant had alleged the accused had accepted a bribe of Rs 40,000 for sanctioning the mutation of a property belonging to his father, located near the Ludhiana Bus Stand, which was registered in 1994.

The complainant alleged that Gurwinder and Nikku had also taken Rs 3,40,000 from him for purchasing two mobile phones, smartwatches and Pakistani shoes. In addition to this, the complainant also spent Rs 80,000 on the birthday party of Nikku.

The spokesperson said that during the probe, it was found that Gurwinder, Nikku, Gurwinder’s father Parmjeet Singh and brother Balwinder Singh had obtained bribes amounting to Rs 27.50 lakh on four occasions.

He added as per the verification, Gurwinder neither carried out the mutation of the property in question nor returned the amount obtained from the complainant for the purpose, proving the duo had not done the job even after taking bribe.

He said in this regard, an FIR under Sections 7 and 7-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC were registered at VB police station (Ludhiana range) in November last year. The four were found prima facie culpable for demanding and accepting bribes and hatching a conspiracy to obtain money illegally.

Since then, raids were being conducted to nab the accused and thus cornered, Gurwinder surrendered on Tuesday. He would be produced in court tomorrow. Investigations were continuing and his accomplices would be arrested soon, the spokesperson added.

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