RTI activist and AAP ex-district president in Vigilance net on bribery charges

While claiming to have busted an alleged nexus between officials of Municipal Town Planning wing and agents, the Vigilance Bureau (VB) arrested an RTI activist, identified as Suresh Kumar Sharma, a resident of Chheharta here last evening. He is a former district president of AAP.

He was arrested red-handed arrested while accepting a bribe of Rs 4 lakh. According to the Vigilance Bureau, he was acting as an agent in the MTP wing by filing RTI application against the applicants to extort money and then withdrawing the applications in connivance with MC officials.

He was being produced in court for being taken into police remand on Friday.

According to Vigilance Bureau officials, more heads may roll during the course of investigations. Several RTI activists are also under the radar.

The Vigilance Bureau spokesman said that the complainant Paramdeep Singh of Basant Avenue approached the VB while alleging that he had constructed a shop at Railway Link Road in Amritsar after demolishing an existing structure and had obtained approval for one floor from the MTP wing of MC.

He said he again approached the MTP wing for additional construction. They advised him to submit a revised plan which was rejected twice by ATP Parminder Singh. The official informed that Suresh Sharma had filed an RTI application against the building under different names. He asked him to approach Sharma if he wanted his file cleared.

The Vigilance Bureau said when he contacted the accused, he demanded a bribe of Rs 7 lakh to withdraw the complaint. Later, the matter was settled at Rs 4 lakh.

“Following a preliminary probe, the Vigilance Bureau laid a trap and arrested the accused red-handed in the presence of two official witnesses. A case was registered against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act here,” said the spokesman.

The VB has appealed that people who were blackmailed by the accused, should approach it, adding that several victims have approached them and facts were being verified.