Rajasthan: PHED chief engineer among 4 held for taking Rs 10 lakh from pvt firm

JAIPUR: In a major crackdown against corruption at the Public Health and Engineering Department(PHED) in Rajasthan, the special team of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday arrested a chief engineer and staff of a private company for allegedly providing and accepting a bribe of Rs 10.40 lakh.
The bribe was taken from the private firm in lieu of clearing bills on time and providing other benefits for a work order of nearly Rs 28 crore.
A few hours later, the ACB arrested two more clerks of PHED in this connection.
The agency also recovered Rs 6 lakh from the residence of a PHED clerk. ACB DGP BL Soni said for the past many months, the agency was keeping tabs on the activities of the PHED and was getting various information on the prevailing corruption in the department.
“It was found that the accused identified as Manish Beniwal was getting bribe for every work related to the laying of pipelines, construction of water tanks and other projects undertaken by the PHED. It was found that the officers were demanding bribes from the private companies who have been given the work of laying pipelines and construction of water tanks especially under the Harmada-Badharna-Bisalpur yojna,” said MN Dinesh, additional director general, ACB.
He added that various teams were keeping a watch on the activities of Beniwal, the chief engineer, PHED (urban). “One Kajormal Tiwari was on way with a bribe of Rs 10.40 lakh which he paid to Beniwal at his Malviya Nagar residence. Our team reached and caught both red-handed for exchanging the bribe,” said Bajrang Singh, additional SP, ACB, who led the operation with his team,” Singh said. Later, two other persons, who are working as LDC in the same department identified as Shafique Mohammed and Vinod Singh, were also arrested in the same racket.
“During the searches, our team also seized Rs 6 lakh cash from the Kho Nagorian residence of Shafique Mohammed,” Singh added.
Senior officers of ACB said for the past six months, ACB officers were attempting to make arrests in this case but the accused was smart and shifted the bribe money.
“It was our self developed intelligence which fetched us the results. We have also initiated searches at the residences of all the four accused in this case,” Singh added.