Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Friday unearthed a scam regarding the issuance of vehicle fitness certificate in the Sangrur Regional Transport Authority (RTA) office, arresting three people — including two employees and a middleman.
The VB has registered a criminal case against the RTA Ravinder Singh Gill, motor vehicle inspector (MVI) Mahinder Pal, clerk Gurcharan Singh, data entry operator Jagsir Singh, two middlemen — Dharminder Pal alias Bunty, and Sukhwinder Sukhi, besides private agents.
VB official said that in the scam, the involvement of Sangrur RTA, MVI, their clerical staff, and private persons has come to light who, in connivance with each other, used to collect bribes from various agents operating in the State for issuing fitness certificates to different types of vehicles without following prescribed rules of the State Government.
“As per rules of the state Transport Department, all commercial vehicles had to obtain a fitness certificate from the RTA office in order to ply on the roads; and all such vehicles, along with their documents, have to be physically inspected by the MVI in his office,” said the official.
Revealing the modus operandi, the official said that these officials, in connivance with agents and middlemen, were blatantly issuing fitness certificates without any physical verification of vehicles in lieu of bribes — ranging from Rs 2800 to Rs 1000 per vehicle — depending on model of vehicle.
“In this way, the RTA and MVI were passing the vehicles only on the basis of documents without physical inspections of vehicles that has to be parked at a specified place for inspection on the spot,” the official added.
Official further added that on the basis of complaints received in this regard, a VB team conducted a surprise checking in the office of MVI Sangrur that exposed the scam. In this case, the VB has arrested three accused on the spot — namely Dharminder Pal alias Bunty (agent) resident of Sangrur; along with dealing clerk Gurucharan Singh and data entry operator Jagsir Singh and bribe money of about Rs 40,000 besides many documents related with this ongoing scam were also recovered.
The VB has registered an FIR, dated August 18, 2022,, under sections 420, 120-B of the Indian penal code (IPC); and 7 and 7A of Prevention of Corruption Act at VB police station Patiala against the accused.
“During the preliminary investigation conducted so far, this scam was going on since last seven-eight years; and more than 2000-2500 vehicles were being issued fitness certificates every month which was not possible for a person to physically inspect such large number of vehicles during the period and bribe money of Rs 35-40 lakhs have been collected every month making this scam run in crores,” said the official.
The official added that further investigation was under progress and the role of all officials posted in this office earlier would also be probed and strict action as per law would be initiated.