EPFO ex-officer held guilty in bribery case

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 19

Special Judge of CBI court Sushil Kumar Garg has held a former enforcement officer of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Sector 17, Manmohan Gilhotra, guilty in a six-year- old bribery case.

The court will pronounce the quantum of the sentence on February 22. The court has held the former EPFO officer guilty under section 7 and 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He has been taken into custody.

Gilhotra was arrested for taking a bribe of Rs 15,000 from a private company official at Baltana, Zirakpur, in 2015.

The CBI acted on a complaint received from the chief administrative officer of the private company, who alleged in his complaint that he was being threatened by the officer with raids at his office. It was alleged in the complaint that the accused telephonically communicated to him to bring certain PF-related documents of his company on the pretext of carrying out an inspection. The company was issued a show-cause notice by the PF Department for not depositing the amount. The accused allegedly called the complainant to discuss the issue.

The complainant alleged that when he met the accused he allegedly demanded Rs 15,000 in lieu of settling the matter. The complainant works at Cloudberry Technologies Pvt Ltd, Sector 7, Madhya Marg, Chandigarh.

Gilhotra was arrested red-handed and the bribe amount of Rs 15,000 was recovered from his pocket on the main road between Baltana and Zirakpur.