January 4, 2009 2:44:19 am
An inspector of the Municipal Corporations (MC) Building Branch was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 21,000 from a dhaba owner to ignore the building violations in the latters building.
The Vigilance Bureau also swooped on assistant town planner (ATP) Ramesh Chhabra of the MC in the same case.
The arrested MC inspector Joginder Kapoor was arrested by a VB team today from the MCs main office near Clock Tower as he was taking the first instalment of the bribe money from dhaba owner Hira Lal Dhir.
VB SSP Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu said the dhaba owner had complained to the VB that ATP Ramesh Chhabra and Building Branch inspector Joginder Kapoor had been demanding Rs 1 lakh from him in lieu of not demolishing his dhaba.
SSP Sandhu told mediapersons that Dhir owned a dhaba near the Samrala Chowk and owing to some violations of the building bylaws; the orders to demolish his dhaba were passed. But Dhir approached the court and took stay orders on the demolition,the SSP added. Despite that,the ATP and the Building Branch inspector kept demanding bribe from Dhir and threatened to demolish his dhaba if he did not pay them the money. When Dhir brought the matter to our notice,a trap was laid to arrest the culprits, the VB SSP added.
Today,when Dhir went to the MC office to pay the first instalment of Rs 20,000 and Rs 1000 for chai-paani of the officials,the VB sleuths arrested inspector Joginder Kapoor red-handed. However,Chhabra was not there at the time of the arrrest but he has also been booked in the corruption case.
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