CBI receives sanction to prosecute CHB employee

Chandigarh, August 14

The CBI has received prosecution sanction against Shamsher Singh, a senior assistant of the Chandigarh Housing Board who was arrested by the agency on May 18 this year while allegedly accepting bribe from a person for issuing a no objection certificate.

PK Dogra, special public prosecutor of CBI, submitted the prosecution sanction before the court with an application requesting for allowing the prosecution to include the name of sanctioning authority as an additional witness.

After hearing the arguments, the court observed: “The application is allowed and sanction for prosecution in respect of the accused, Shamsher Singh, is taken on record and the name of Dharam Pal, Chairman, CHB, who is the sanctioning authority, be included as an additional witness.”

The court has adjourned the hearing to August 24.

As per the chargesheet, the accused demanded bribe for issuing an NOC applied under the Tatkal Scheme.

In his complaint to the CBI, Sukhjit Singh, a resident of Mani Majra, stated that they had purchased a house at Modern Housing Complex in the name of his father. As an NOC was required from the CHB before buying the unit, he had applied for it and issuance of transfer letter after paying the tatkal fee on March 30. He said his file was marked to Shamsher Singh, the dealing assistant.

As per procedure, a conditional transfer letter was to be issued within five working days under the scheme, but despite visiting repeatedly, Shamsher did not work on his file. He alleged that an objection was raised and ultimately, the accused allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs10,000 in the last week of April. He also alleged that the accused told him that in case the bribe was not paid, objections would be raised repeatedly.

On his complaint, Shamsher Singh was apprehended red-handed while allegedly demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs 10,000.