Naib tehsildar held for taking bribe

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 20

Naib tehsildar Subhash Mittal landed in Vigilance net for accepting Rs 40,000 as bribe from Iqbal Singh, a resident of Gehri Buttar village.

Vigilance officials said there were complaints of dermanding bribe against Mittal for the past few months but nobody has so far filed any complaint against him.

Earlier, he was posted in Mansa and Bathinda where too he was accused of indulging into bribery. A resident of Power House Road in Bathinda, he was now posted as naib tehsildar at Sangat Mandi tehsil near Bathinda.

Revenue officials, who were earlier in touch with Mittal, said they had warned him about his attitude of “overcharging” from the poor, especially farmers, but Mittal did not pay heed towards their warning.

In his complaint to the police, Iqbal said the naib tehsildar, posted in Sangat Mandi, had already accepted Rs 10,000 from him for intkaal (mutation) of a piece of land. The tehsildar was demanding Rs 50,000 for the intkaal and refused to clear the papers without getting the amount from the complainant.

Vigilance officials said Mittal was harassing the poor and farmers who had been visiting the tehsil to get their revenue-related works done.

Upset over the “attitude” of the naib tehsildar, Iqbal decided to bring the matter into the notice of the Vigilance Department in public interest as the revenue officer had sought quite a big amount for his work.

After assurance of justice by senior Vigilance officials, the complainant then lodged a written complaint with the department.

A shadow witness from another government department was taken along by Vigilance sleuths to arrest the Naib Tehsildar red-handed.

Besides Jasvir Singh of Machhana village, the Vigilance also took along project officer from District Industrial Department Ashok Kumar Garg to arrest the Naib Tehsildar red-handed in the presence of the government witnesses.

The accused agreed to give a “discount” of Rs 10,000 to the complainant as he expressed his helplessness in arranging the amount of Rs 50,000 and later agreed to pay Rs 40,000.

The moment the complainant handed over the pending bribe money of Rs 30,000 to the accused the sleuths overpowered Mittal and arrested him. The currency notes were coloured by the Vigilance earlier.

SSP, Vigilance, Gurmeet Singh said the accused was arrested red-handed after recovering the bribe money from his possession and a case under Sections 7 (13) 2 88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act had been registered against him.

The accused was brought to the Vigilance Police Office in the District Administrative Complex (DAC) where he was being interrogated. The sleuths then reached his residence at Power House Road for further recovery of items.

Irregularities found in cooperative society

Meanwhile, a team of Vigilance officials comprising inspector Gurdev Bhalla, ASI Harjeet Singh and head constable Labh Singh visited a cooperative society in Bhai Rupa village where they found irregularities to the tune of Rs 8 lakh.

Besides the Vigilance sleuths, Cooperative Department’s inspector Raghubir Singh and Bhupinder Singh were accompanied the inspecting team. The vigilance officials said the irregularities were found in the stock register wherein 10 bags of urea were found missing. Also, the record was not found up to the mark.

Accused was warned earlier

Revenue officials, who were earlier in touch with Mittal, said they had warned him about his attitude of “overcharging” from the poor, especially farmers, but Mittal did not pay heed to their warning.