Dehradun district horticulture inspector Om Prakash Balodi was caught red-handed while taking a bribe of Rs10,000 from Pankaj Sharma, resident of Aaraghar, Haridwar Road, Dehradun by vigilance team in the presence of independent witnesses on Friday.
The bribe was sought for felling a litchi tree. Ashok Kumar, additional DGP and director, vigilance department, announced reward of Rs10,000 to the team members for cracking the case and having the accused caught and arrested.
“With such cases of officers demanding bribes happening thick and fast here nowadays, the vigilance department’s promptness in cracking them and arresting the accused would send a positive message across the state,” said an observer.
ADGP Kumar said that a horticulture inspector had demanded bribe of Rs10,000 from Pankaj Sharma, resident of Araghar, for felling a litchi tree from a plot located at lane number 12, Indraprastha Colony. Sharma had applied for the same to the district horticulture department on August 24.
Inspector Om Prakash Balodi was appointed by the department to look into the matter. According to Sharma, Balodi had conducted inspection of the plot and sought bribe of Rs10,000 for submitting report in his favour and completing the work.
Angered over the officer seeking bribe in such an unabashed way, Sharma had approached the vigilance department, Dehradun and registered a complaint on September 2.
SP (Vigilance) Dehradun VKS Karki said that they had verified the initial complaint with the help of vigilance officers.
Thereafter, the teams drafted a plan to trap the accused and SP Vigilance subsequently formed a trap team led by CO MS Rawat.
Inspector Rajkishor Farswan, constables Dinesh Chandra Pandey and Baldev Singh Tomar were included in the team.
They were asked to verify the efficacy of the complaint. After the complaint was found correct, the vigilance department sought permission from the department concerned and after it was obtained, team was asked to trap the accused. The team was working under the supervision of DSP Rawat, it is learnt.
Following the direction of vigilance officer, Sharma again met Balodi and finalised the deal. Balodi asked him to reach Vikas Bhawan, Dalanwala area. Inspector Balodi was caught taking the bribe from Sharma near Vikas Bhawan by vigilance team, Dehradun, SP Karki added.
SP Karki appealed the people to register their graft- related complaints on various mediums like social networking sites facebook, toll- free numbers- 1800-180- 6666 and mobile numbers- 9456591894 and 9411112739.