Ranchi, March 27: Vigilance Bureau arrested two government officials, one belonging to the state power board and the other a district transport officer, for corruption in the last 24 hours.
Jharkhand Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (JUVNL) junior engineer Anil Kumar was nabbed this morning after the police laid a trap for him, while Hazaribagh DTO Vinod Kumar Gupta was picked from his residence late last night.
Anil Kumar was caught while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 28,000 from Ranchi entrepreneur Bajrangi Sharma, who had applied for commercial power connection for his iron grille unit.
DTO Vinod Gupta was on the bureau radar since November last year. He was arrested for apparently running a racket by virtue of which he would release seized public carriers only if owners paid up big money.
'Kumar has been taken to the office of the vigilance bureau at Audrey House for interrogation. He will be produced before the vigilance court in Ranchi. An FIR has already been lodged against him. His Dhurwa residence is being searched,' said vigilance bureau SP Vipul Shukla.
According to sources, Sharma, a resident of Jai Prakash Nagar at Booty More, had applied for an electricity connection a month back for his manufacturing unit. But, the engineer, who was posted at the Bariatu regional office of JUVNL sought Rs 40,000 as bribe.
Last week, Sharma lodged a formal complaint. Today, DSP Awdhesh Kumar Singh laid a trap and arrested Kumar from his office with Rs 28,000.
This was third such instance in the current fiscal when vigilance officials laid a trap and arrested officials for accepting bribes.
In Hazaribagh, DTO Vinod Gupta was arrested late last night from his residence after the police got to know of his alleged involvement in a mini scam wherein seized good carriers were let off only after owners or drivers paid a bribe.
Gupta had even illegally employed one Suraj Kumar, who used to work as an agent at the DTO. Suraj was subsequently nabbed by police for negotiating deals after a file pertaining to a seized car was found in his possession.
It so happened that the file pertained to a seized truck that belonged to Shankar Sao, a resident of Ghanghri village at Chouparan in Hazaribagh district. Sao had complained that DTO seized his truck (WB 23U 7097) along with relevant papers at Atka on NH-2. The truck was carrying pulses.
Remand
The vigilance court of Md Shakir granted two days' police remand to former Garhwa DDC Uma Shankar Prasad, who surrendered on March 21 in connection with two vigilance cases against him.
