Chandigarh, January 28 : Aiming to weed out corruption fromthe society, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has been able to nab 92 officialswhich includes 7 gazetted officers (GOs) and 85 non-gazetted officials (NGOs)besides 14 private persons while accepting bribes in 77 trap cases during thelast year.
Disclosing this VB Chief Director-cum-DGP B.K. Uppal saidthe VB has adopted a multi-facet approach to corner the bribe seekers and togenerate awareness among the public with a resolute stand to curb this socialmalady.
He revealed that during the year, apart from otherdepartments, 38 personnel of Punjab Police, 24 of revenue department, 5 oflocal bodies, 3 each from health and power departments were nabbed red handedwhile taking bribes in separate trap cases since January 1 to December 31, 2020in the trap cases.
Giving details about the performance of the Bureau, Uppaladded that VB had registered 59 criminal cases against 192 accused whichincludes 27 GOs, 67 NGOs and 98 private persons. Apart from this, 42 vigilanceenquiries have also been registered to probe corruption complaints against 9GOs, 24 NGOs and 5 private persons in the last year. Besides, 4 cases ofdisproportionate assets were also registered against 2 GOs and 2 NGOs.
Adopting a zero tolerance policy towards all forms ofcorruption, 11 NGOs have been dismissed from their services by their respectiveadministrative departments due to conviction in various courts.
VB chief further informed that the Bureau had been able toconclude 39 vigilance enquiries during the last year. Besides this, the vigilancebureau has also issued directions/suggestions to various departments foridentifying the methods of corruption.
Sharing details, Uppal said various special courts havesentenced 6 accused in 6 different cases under prevention of corruption act andawarded imprisonments upto four years. The special courts have also imposedfines varying from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000 in these cases which amount to atotal sum of Rs. 2,50,000 he added.
During the vigilance awareness week, the VB has conducted astate wide campaign in which seminars and public meetings were held in urban aswell as in rural areas to weed out corruption from the society and integritypledge was also administered to all the officers and employees of thebureau," he added.
Furthermore, he added that several cases have beenregistered against those who were not following the Covid-19 guidelines issuedby the Government and sold sanitizers and masks at exorbitant prices.
Giving details of prominent cases VB chief informed that VKVirdi DETC, Simran Brar, Vishvajeet Singh Bhangu and Rajesh Bhandari,Haryadwinder Singh Bajwa, Manjit Singh and Harmeet Singh (All A.E.T.Cs) andPiara Singh, Ravi Nandan, Varun Nagpal, Kalicharan, Satpal Multani, Ved ParkashJakhar, Abhisheek Duggal HS Sandhu, Susheel Kumar, Japsimran Singh, Dinesh Gorhand Lakhbir Singh (All ETOs) were also booked for conniving with transportersin evasion of taxes.
In addition, he disclosed that Varinderpal Dhoot, HarneekSingh and Rupinder Kumar (All Naib Tehsildars), Dr. Manjit Singh Babbar postedat Civil Hospital Gurdaspur, Executive Engineer PSPCL Jaswinder Pal, DirectorDavinder Singh Sindhu of WWICS Estate Private Ltd., Ashok Kumar Sikka retiredPCS officer were also booked in different cases during the last year.
He said that VB have also registered cases during Covid-19pandemic against Sunil Dogra Dogra Medicos, Dinesh Kumar Naveen Medicos, Dr.Mahinder Singh, Dr. Rydhm Tulhi, Dr. Sanjay Piplani, Dr. Pankaj Soni and ownerof EMC hospital Pawan Arora.