Vijay Dahiya Bribery Case: Witness says he paid Rs 13 lakh to clear Rs 75 lakh bills, says ACB

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 24

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Haryana, has told a Panchkula court that a witness has recorded a statement before a magistrate regarding the payment of Rs 13 lakh bribe to IAS officer Vijay Dahiya, then Commissioner and Secretary, Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Department, for clearing bills worth Rs 75 lakh.

In a fresh revelation that has come in the ACB’s reply in the Poonam Chopra bail case, the ACB stated that a witness, Vikram Singh, got recorded his statement on May 5 under Section 164 of the CrPC (a statement before a magistrate) that bills worth Rs 75 lakh of his firms — Shiv Education Society, Lala Kundan Lal Society, BRM Education, and Sarvodya Education Welfare Society — got cleared on the payment of Rs 13 lakh bribe. It was also revealed that Rs 13 lakh was paid through an employee of the Haryana Skill Development Mission, Deepak Sharma.

Dahiya, Chopra, and Sharma are accused in a case registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act and extortion at the ACB police station, Panchkula, on April 20 for seeking Rs 5 lakh bribe for clearing bills worth Rs 50 lakh of a training provider Rinku Manchanda. Chopra was caught with Rs 3 lakh bribe money on April 20. Later, Rs 2 lakh was recovered from her Delhi office during her police remand.

Earlier, the court had dismissed the anticipatory bail application of Dahiya on May 3 and today the regular bail application of Chopra was dismissed. The ACB has submitted before the court that so far the investigation on the basis of call recordings, WhatsApp chats and CCTV footage has revealed that Chopra was seeking a bribe from complainant Rinku Manchanda for Dahiya.

Manchanda’s Rs 50 lakh bills were pending clearance for the past three years, but when the deal was struck with Chopra, Dahiya approved six of his bills, worth Rs 10.43 lakh, from April 6 to April 17.

Chopra had given her consent for giving voice samples on May 19. During a raid on April 20, she had made a WhatsApp call to Dahiya, who told her that she was late. She replied that Manchanda had delayed in giving her the “stuff”, which was why she got late in meeting him. Then, along with the raiding team, she reached a cafe in Sector 8, Chandigarh, to meet him. They spent an hour there and took refreshments.

Dahiya was then picked up from the cafe, along with his driver, and his official car was taken to the ACB office, where he was questioned for two-three hours.

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