SDO nabbed while taking bribe of Rs 5.5L in Panchkula

A government official posted as an Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) at the Haryana Public Works Department (PWD) Electrical division in Chandigarh office was caught red-handed while taking bribe of Rs 5.5 lakh in Sector 11 Market of Panchkula on Thursday.

The accused was caught by the State Vigilance Bureau and presented in court on Friday. He was sent to one-day police remand.

DSP Sharif Singh of the State Vigilance Bureau Panchkula said that the accused, identified as Dharmendar Singh, had been transferred to this department as an SDO from Rohtak.

The complainant, Sandeep Kaushal, is a goods supplier and had approached the bureau– filing a complaint against the accused, who had demanded bribes from the complainant on several occasions, to clear the complainant’s pending bills with the Haryana government.

“Sandeep provides electrical appliances for Chandigarh-based IAS officials’ homes, MLA hostels et al for the government of Haryana. A bill of Rs 1.3 crore had remained pending from the government in favour of Sandeep since July last year. The accused had already taken an amount of Rs 3 lakh from the complainant earlier in lieu of clearing his bills and had cleared some in exchange of the money. He had then demanded Rs 5.5 lakh more to clear the remaining amount,” said Singh.

The team, including DSP Shareef Singh and Tehsildar Raipurrani Virender Gill as Duty Magistrate, conducted a raid under the Anti-Corruption Act on Thursday and caught the accused SDO Dharmender Singh red-handed while he was taking a bribe of Rs. 5.50 lakh.

The accused has been taken in police custody for interrogation regarding the bribes taken by him earlier and similar allegations made against him in the past.

An FIR has been registered under section 7 of the PC Act at Sector 17 Police Station in Panchkula by the State Vigilance Bureau.