Irrigation dept executive engineer arrested for accepting bribe

DEHRADUN: An irrigation department executive engineer was arrested in

Chamoli district

on Saturday by vigilance sleuths for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 to release a contractor’s payment amount. The contractor was earlier paid Rs 1.98 lakh for a project, and was supposed to get the pending amount of Rs 65,000. However, executive engineer Umesh Kumar allegedly demanded Rs 25,000, but later reduced the alleged bribe amount to Rs 15,000 on repeated requests.

The contractor, who did not wish to be named, reported the matter to the state vigilance department. According to the complainant, he was a registered contractor with the irrigation department at Chamoli. Under the district plan, he was awarded a Rs 1.98 lakh-project for the revival of an irrigation canal. The project was completed in February 2016 and the payment was made to him. However, following a landslide, some damages were caused to the canal and for repair works, he was again given a work order of Rs 65,000.

“On several occasions, he met executive engineer Umesh Kumar, who asked for a payment of Rs 25,000 for the amount released earlier and also for the pending amount. However, after a few rounds of discussion and requests by the contractor, the irrigation officer agreed to release the amount for a payment of Rs 15,000,” a vigilance officer said.

The vigilance team verified the allegations and were convinced with the charges made by the contractor. A trap was laid and

Kumar

was arrested near his residence in Chamoli district on Saturday morning.

SP Vigilance Senthil Avoodai K Raj S told TOI that some important recoveries have been made from the residence of arrested executive engineer. “From the official residence of Kumar in Haldwani, Rs 13.35 lakh cash, some

gold

biscuits and ornaments along with passbook and cheque book of various bank accounts and bank locker key have been seized. We are verifying all the facts,” said the senior vigilance officer.