Graft: Hry food inspector sent to judicial custody

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 22

The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge (CBI) Dr Sushil Kumar Garg today sent Rajesh Bansal, Haryana District Food Supply Officer (DFSO), to judicial custody in a bribery case.

CBI sleuths had caught Bansal, posted at the office of Directorate of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Chandigarh, red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh in Sector 7-C here yesterday.

A case under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered on the complaint of Hemant Kumar, a partner in Balaji Transport Company, Ambala, along with Roxy, Abhishek.

In the complaint, Kumar stated that their transport company was allotted tender for transportation and distribution of ration at shops in Ambala and Panchkula districts. Meanwhile, the government started distribution of bajra from November and the order for transportation of the food grain in Ambala and Panchkula from Rewari was given to their company.

Kumar, Roxy and Sunil Kumar (Abhishek’s father) met the Director, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs in Chandigarh on October 22 and told him that as the government has fixed Rs 64 per quintal for transportation of bajra from Rewari to Panchkula and Rs 51.50 per quintal to Ambala, it was not possible to transport bajra at such a nominal rate.

As they came out of the Director’s office, they met Rajesh Bansal who told them to visit his office the next day for a solution to their problem. When they met Bansal, he told them that bajra was available at Bhor Saida village in Kurukshetra district and he would manage the transportation of bajra from there. Following this, they also received a letter on October 25 from the Director, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, for transportation of bajra from Bhor Saida and they started transporting it.

On November 13, Bansal asked Kumar to meet him at his office. When they met him on November 18, Bansal told them that if they wanted to transport bajra from Kurukshetra, they have to pay him Rs 2.85 lakh at the rate of Rs 12 per quintal, otherwise they would have to transport bajra from Rewari.

As they did not want to pay the bribe, they filed a complaint with the CBI, Chandigarh, on November 20. Accordingly, the CBI laid a trap and nabbed Bansal red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from Kumar.