Day after Cong legislators flag graft issue, SDM, cops shifted

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, November 20

A day after Congress MLAs highlighted alleged corruption by an SDM and also accused certain police officials of phone recording and bribery, the said officials were shifted and a probe ordered.

MLAs Hardyal Singh Kamboj, Madan Lal Jalalpur, Rajinder Singh and Nirmal Singh had demanded strict action against Patiala SDM Arvinder Pal Arora for allegedly demanding Rs 10 lakh from a Congress supporter. While the SDM has been shifted to Chandigarh, his PA was suspended.

Sources say three of the four MLAs now want to know as to how Arora managed to get posting in Patiala as he was suspended in 2018. “The MLAs were planning to hold a dharna against their own government the way the district administration had handled the case despite being apprised of the matter a fortnight ago,” a source said.

“In July 2018, the government had suspended Arora who was posted as Baba Bakala SDM. The orders were issued by Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh following a complaint by an NRI, who had alleged that the officer had demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from him,” he said, adding that following the intervention of the local MLA, the NRI did not pursue the case.

Kamboj said, “A Congress sarpanch had approached Patiala SDM Arora after his office summoned a dera mahant and demanded a bribe of Rs 10 lakh. Later after my intervention, the demand was lowered to Rs 7 lakh. This is a serious issue when an officer goes against the ruling party MLA and demands bribe despite being warned. We will follow up the probe report and ensure strict action in the case.”

Arora has already denied the allegations as baseless and claimed that no bribe was ever demanded.

Patiala Deputy Commissioner Kumar Amit said the probe would be completed by Thursday and a report would be sent to Chandigarh. “The SDM’s PA, Aman Sharma, has been suspended. I will further comment only after getting the report,” he said.

Meanwhile on the phone-recording charges by Samana MLA Rajinder Singh against CIA Samana incharge Vijay Kumar, the SSP today shifted him to CIA Nabha.

Also, a probe has been ordered against the CIA Rajpura team which faces serious allegations of letting off a drug peddler after arresting him with banned tablets and drugs. “I have ordered a departmental probe and we are trying to ascertain as to how the team kept someone in illegal custody and later let them off after accepting bribe. We will not spare any cop found guilty,” said Patiala SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu.