Registrar CK Soni and junior engineer Brajesh Kumar Singh Bhoj of Kumaon Engineering College, Dwarahat, Almora were arrested by a Vigilance team on Wednesday on the charge of accepting bribe of Rs 60, 000 from a complainant Keshav Dutt Kandpal, resident of Almora. The written complaint was received on March 6.
The bribe was sought for releasing fund of Rs 10 lakh. The complainant Kandpal had supplied water to the college through tanks. The bribe amount was left to be received by junior engineer Bhoj from the complainant, said director Vigilance and additional DGP Ashok Kumar.
The action followed after the Vigilance Headquarters, Uttarakhand had received a complaint through its helpline from the complainant. ADGP Kumar had directed SP, Vigilance, Haldwani sector, Amit Srivastava to crack the case. The complainant was called at Haldwani sector Vigilance office.
In his written complaint, complainant stated that he had approached registrar Soni and JE Bhoj for releasing the fund of Rs 10 lakh against the water supplied by him to the college. Registrar had allegedly sought a bribe of Rs 50, 000 while the sum allegedly sought by the JE was Rs 10, 000. The whole bribe amount was to be paid through JE Bhoj as per deal that was fixed, the complainant said. The JE had allegedly asked the complainant to come with Rs 60, 000 in cash to his residence in the college campus, the complaint ran.
Despite the deal, the complainant had approached the Vigilance department and registered a complaint.
Kumar said that after verifying the initial complaint with the help of Vigilance officials, inspector Kevlanand Arya was asked to draft a plan to trap the accused. After the consent was obtained from the department concerned, the team went forward to trap the accused. The accused JE Bhoj was finally caught red- handed and arrested while accepting the bribe of Rs 60, 000 from the complainant in front of two independent witnesses at 12.30 pm on Wednesday. The vigilance team conducted raids at the house of Bhoj and recovered 12 passbooks. Team had recovered files related to the case from the possession of Soni. Soni was being questioned at the time of filing the story. Additional DGP Kumar announced reward of Rs 10, 000 to the team members for cracking the case.