The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Haryana Tuesday arrested senior IAS officer Vijay Singh Dahiya, six months after he was booked in a corruption case. A 2001-batch officer, Dahiya was arrested after he was questioned by the sleuths at the ACB headquarters in Panchkula. He was produced before a local court and remanded in 14-day judicial custody. Dahiya was booked on April 20 following the arrest of a woman, who allegedly used to get bills cleared in lieu of money collected on his behalf. At that time, Dahiya was posted as the commissioner, Skill Development & Industrial Training Department in Panchkula. The woman was identified as Poonam Chopra, a resident of Sector 4, Panchkula. She was arrested allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 3 lakh. Apart from Chopra, the ACB had registered an FIR against Dahiya and Haryana Skill Development Mission’s Chief Skills Officer (CSO) Deepak Sharma. The trio was booked under charges of conspiracy, extortion, and Sections 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 on the complaint of Fatehabad Rinku Manchanda, who runs an educational institute. Manchanda, in his complaint had stated that as a training partner of Haryana Skill Development Mission, his institute imparted computer training to poor children besides running classes for AC technician and those wishing to set up beauty parlour. He said he had submitted bills amounting to Rs 50 lakh for the same to the Haryana Skill Development Department. The amount remained pending for three years and to get it cleared, CSO Deepak Sharma demanded Rs 5 lakh. Sharma also had allegedly told Manchanda to meet Chopra as “she is known to Dahiya and will ensure early” clearance of bills. Manchanda allegedly paid Rs 2 lakh to Chopra, who, after chatting with Dahiya on WhatsApp, demanded another Rs 3 lakh the same day to get the bills cleared. The complainant approached the ACB and subsequently, Chopra was arrested while allegedly taking Rs 3 lakh as bribe. Claiming that he was falsely implicated in the case due to "motivated considerations", Dahiya had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court for anticipatory bail in June. He had submitted that he was implicated in the case for the mere reason that he was known to the accused woman and that the prosecution had attempted to cook up the story that the petitioner is also an accused in the case. The high court had rejected his plea. Prior to that, in May, a Panchkula court too had rejected his anticipatory bail plea. Dahiya, who had initially proceeded on medical leave, joined the duty two months ago but was not assigned any portfolio. “The ACB informed the state government that as per their record Dahiya was absconding. Following a message from the state authorities on Monday, Dahiya went join the investigation on Tuesday. Following sustained questioning, he was arrested,” said an official. It was learnt that Dahiya had earlier informed the authorities that the ACB had not taken approval from the government before lodging an FIR against him. On its part, sources said, the ACB replied that it was a trap case in which an approval from the government was not required. The ACB also insisted that it had evidence against the IAS officer.
