XEN among 3 held on graft charge

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Sirsa, December 12

The State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) has arrested three officials for graft in less than 24 hours under the Hisar range of the bureau comprising the five districts of Sirsa, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bhiwani and Jind.

Those arrested by the SVB include an Executive Engineer of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), a clerk of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board and an inspector of the Food and Supplies Department .

Shiv Charan Attri, SP (Vigilance), told The Tribune today that Ashok Kumar Bhalla, an Executive Engineer of the HSIIDC (also designated as Senior Manager), who had the charge of Sirsa as well as Jind districts, demanded a bribe of Rs 60,000 from Onkar Singh, a contractor from Suchan village of this district.

Onkar Singh alleged that he had installed a tubewell in the HSIIDC property and Bhalla was demanding the bribe for releasing his payment of Rs 6 lakh.

The SP constituted a team under the Inspector (Vigilance) Bhupender Sharma, who nabbed Bhalla red-handed when he received bribe amount from the contractor.

In another case, SVB sleuths arrested Vijender, a clerk of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board, along with Rs 25,000 taken as a bribe from a brick-kiln owner.

In the third case, a team of the SVB arrested Azad Singh, an inspector in the Food and Supplies Department, for accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 today.