Graft: Milk plant manager sent to two-day Vigilance Bureau remand in Mohali

Mohali, December 6

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) claimed to have recovered valuable assets and items, including cash, from the house of Manoj Kumar Srivastva, a procurement manager of milk plant in Mohali, who was arrested yesterday for “demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000”.

The court today sent him to two-day VB remand for further investigation.

A VB spokesperson said during a search of Srivastva’s house, Rs 7 lakh in cash, eight gold rings, a gold bracelet, ornaments and 14 watches were recovered. He added that a watch worth Rs 45,000, which was given to him by the complainant, had also been confiscated.

The VB has asked the bank to freeze his locker and sought details from other banks to provide all details of his accounts.

The cooperative department official was arrested on the complaint of Sukhbir Singh, who had been managing milk collection tankers deployed by a private firm in the said milk plant.

The complainant had stated that the official was “demanding Rs 50,000 more in lieu of allocating best routes to his tankers to collect milk from different locations”. The complainant informed the VB that the “manager has already taken Rs 50,000 in this regard”.

The VB Flying Squad unit of Mohali investigated the allegations and laid a trap. Srivastva was arrested while “accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses”.

A case under the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against him.