3 officials of District Industry Centre, Ludhiana, caught taking bribe

The Vigilance Bureau (VB) Ludhiana Range claimed to have caught three officials of the District Industry Centre (DIC), Ludhiana, red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000.

VB officials said the complainant, Sanjeev Saini, had a production unit, located in Phase VIII, Focal Point, here. The plot was transferred by the Industries Department, Punjab, in 2016 and production had been in progress since 2016 and in this regard, he was issued a certificate regarding the date of commencement of the production on the plot by the District Industries Centre in 2019. Thereafter, on January 19, 2026, a letter was received from the State Officer-2, Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation Limited, Udyog Bhawan, Chandigarh, regarding the confirmation of the date of production at the unit. In this regard, the complainant had given a written application to the General Manager, DIC, Ludhiana, on January 27, that a certificate regarding the exact date of production should be issued for the unit.

In this regard, Jaspal Singh, senior industrial promotional officer, visited the unit on February 9. After verifying it, Jaspal demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 in return for submitting the report regarding the visit of the unit to his senior officials and received Rs 5,000 as advance. Later, on February 12, Jaspal called the complainant at his office, District Industries Centre, and made him to meet Rishav Garg, senior industrial promotional officer.

The two suspects demanded Rs 45,000 for issuing the certificate regarding the exact date of beginning of production and the deal was fixed at Rs 30,000. The complainant had made a recording of the same. On Friday, the suspects had called the complainant to his office with the bribe money. When the latter went to the DIC office, the suspect sent him to his office employee Antarpreet Singh, business assistant, District Industries Centre, to receive the money. Antarpreet was arrested in the presence of government witnesses while taking a bribe of Rs 30,000 while Jaspal and Rishav Garg were also arrested on the spot.

A case under Section 7 of the PC Act, 1988, and 61(2), BNS, had been registered at the Vigilance Bureau Range police station. Further investigation was underway, said VB SSP Varinder Singh Brar.