SDO among two booked for corruption

Amritsar, August 19

The Vigilance Bureau has booked a Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of the Amritsar Development Authority (ADA), PUDA Bhawan, along with his peon on the charge of corruption.

Though the peon (Class IV employee) identified as Amritdeep Singh was arrested red-handed, SDO Vijaypal Singh was not present in the office when the vigilance officials laid a trap.

Varinder Singh, SSP, Vigilance, said a case under Sections 7 and 7-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against the two and raids were on to arrest the SDO.

He said the duo were booked following a complaint by Saurabh Bhatia of Gurugram. The complainant alleged that the accused demanded Rs 12,000 bribe for issuing a no objection certificate (NOC) of a plot located in New Pal Avenue at Kale Ghanupur here.

Bhatia stated that he had procured a 111.11 square yard plot from Raghubir Singh of Jujhar Avenue in July 2019. He said at that time a provisional NOC was issued by the ADA. He said on May 25, he gave the token money and August 25 was fixed for registry of the plot. He said he applied for the NOC on July 19.

He said for one month, his cousin made rounds of the ADA, but NOC was not issued. He said on August 12, he met the SDO, who said the same would be issued within a week but allegedly demanded Rs 12,000 as bribe for it. He said on August 17, he got a call from Amritdeep, informing that an NOC had been made and asked for the bribe amount.

The SSP said a Vigilance team headed by Amolak Singh laid a trap and Amritdeep was arrested red-handed in the presence of government witnesses while taking the bribe. However, SDO Vijaypal was not present on the seat.