Aiming to weed out corruption from the society, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) adopted a multi-facet approach to corner the bribe seekers and to generate awareness among the public with a resolute stand to curb this social malady.
During the period the VB has apprehended 173 persons red handed taking bribes in different cases. Disclosing this here today, VB Chief Director-cum-Special DGP Varinder Kumar, said the VB has been able to nab 139 officials of different departments and 34 private persons while accepting bribes in 134 trap cases during the year 2024.
Adopting a zero tolerance policy towards all forms of corruption, the Bureau had nabbed 10 gazetted officers (GOs) and 129 non-gazetted officials (NGOs) from January 1 to December 31, 2024. VB Chief revealed that during the year, apart from other departments, 53 personnel of Punjab Police, 33 of Revenue Department, 9 of Power, 3 of Panchayats and Rural Development, 8 of Health department, 18 of Local Bodies department, 3 of Food & Civil Supply department were nabbed red handed while taking bribes in separate cases.
In addition to this, the VB has apprehended two employees each of Forest department, Labour, Finance and Transport department in graft cases. Giving more details about the performance of the Bureau he added that the VB had registered 124 criminal cases against the accused in which include 29 GOs, 117 NGOs and 117 private persons.
Apart from this, 60 Vigilance Enquiries had also been registered to probe corruption complaints against 26 GOs, 27 NGOs and 7 private persons. Besides, 3 cases of disproportionate assets were also registered against 3 NGOs.
In addition, 1 Gazetted officer and 1 Non Gazetted Officer has been dismissed from their services by their respective administrative departments due to conviction by the competent courts while deciding the VB cases. He further revealed that the Bureau had been able to conclude 71 Vigilance Enquiries during the year.
Sharing details, DGP VB said various competent courts have sentenced 50 accused in 41 cases filed and contested by the Bureau under prevention of corruption act which includes 3 GOs, 31 NGOs and 16 private persons and awarded imprisonments ranging from one year to seven years.
The courts have also imposed fines varying from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 5,00,000 in these cases which amount to a total sum of Rs. 22,42,000, he added. The VB has effectively implemented awareness campaigns during Vigilance Awareness Week in which seminars and public meetings were held in urban as well as in rural areas to weed corruption from the society and integrity pledges was also administered to all the officers and employees of the bureau," he added.
He further informed that prominent persons have been booked/arrested in corruption cases during the last year included I.A.S officer Vinay Biblani, P.C.S officer Harpreet Singh Assistant Labour Commissioner Hoshiarpur, A.C.P Nirdesh Kaur Ludhiana, executive engineers Ranbir Singh and Rajinder Singh, DCFA Pankaj Garg, C.T.P. Pankaj Bawa, Jarnail Singh Bajwa, of Bajwa Developers Mohali and Medical Officer Dr. Narinder Pal Singh.
In addition this, Gurmukh Singh, Sarbjit Singh and Kulwinder Singh all BDPOs, posted at Ludhiana, Ferozpur and Mohali respectively, Baldev Raj DFSO, Tehsildar Sukhchain Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, Deepak Kumar Singal of Deepak Builders, Arvinder Singh Chief Engineer, Paramjit Singh and Sarbraj Kumar both Executive Engineers were also arrested/booked during the year.