Engr held for accepting Rs 80,000 bribe, Rs 11L recovered from bed

PATNA: The vigilance investigation bureau arrested rural works department executive engineer Ramchandra Paswan (57) along with a contractual data operator Shashi Kumar Shrivastava (32) while allegedly accepting Rs80,000 as bribe from a contractor, Bablu Kumar, inside the officer’s rented flat at Chhota Bariyarpur under Chhatauni police station area in East Champaran on Tuesday morning.

The vigilance team led by DSP Surendra Kumar Mauaar also recovered Rs11 lakh from from below the bed cushion in his flat after a search operation.

A simultaneous and separate raid led by vigilance DSP Satyanayaran Ram was also conducted in Arwal where state food corporation (SFC) assistant manager Mohammad Salahuddin (39) was nabbed for allegedly accepting Rs25,000 as bribe from one Dhirendra Kumar at his rented accommodation at Jaiprakash Nagar.

In the East Champaran case, vigilance sources said the contractor had constructed Majhaulia-Sundarpur village road in RWD’s Dhaka division. The project was worth several lakhs but payment was not cleared. “Bablu met the engineer but he was directed to meet Srivastava. The data operator asked Bablu to pay 1.5% of the total payment as bribe for bill clearance. The amount was coming around Rs80,000,” a vigilance source said.

Bablu lodged a complaint with the vigilance bureau, which verified the allegation and found it to be true. “The engineer was arrested soon after Bablu gave him the bribe. The data operator was also arrested soon after he entered the flat,” the officer said.

He said Paswan failed to explain about the source of Rs11 lakh which was kept in his flat. He said Paswan is a native of Supaul and Srivastava belongs to Motihari.

In the Arwal raid, sources said Salahuddin had demanded Rs25,000 from Dhirendra to make entry of his one truck rice in the district's SFC storage database. “Dhirendra is the PACS president of Sarauti panchayat. His rice worth around Rs7.5 lakh was already deposited by Salahuddin in the storage, but entry was not made,” another vigilance source said.

He said the bribe was demanded to make this entry. The source said Salahuddin is a native of Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas district.