CBI carries out high-drama raid at Punjab vigilance office
In a lightning late-night operation straight out of a Bollywood thriller, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stormed the Punjab Vigilance office in Mohali. The CBI team arrested two key intermediaries and one accomplice near Ambala at the Punjab-Haryana border, triggering a high-speed chase through the city streets, all to bust a brazen `13-lakh bribery racket involving senior officers of the department.
The sensational crackdown came hours after the CBI registered an FIR based on a complaint by a Punjab State Tax Officer. The officer alleged that the accused, Vikas Goyal, and his son, Raghav Goyal, had demanded a whopping `20 lakh in illegal gratification to bury a complaint pending against him before the Director General (Vigilance), Punjab.
Acting swiftly on the complaint, CBI sleuths laid a trap and zeroed in on the intermediaries allegedly facilitating the payoff within the very corridors of the vigilance department, the agency tasked with rooting out corruption.
Sources said the arrested trio were caught red-handed as they tried to clinch the deal. When officers moved in for the arrest, two of the suspects attempted a desperate getaway, sparking a nail-biting chase through Mohali’s dimly lit roads before they were finally cornered and nabbed. After a chase, the accused, namely Raghav Goyal, Vikas Vicky Goyal and two gunmen were apprehended by the CBI team near Ambala at the Punjab-Haryana border. However, the accused, OP Rana, reader to the DGP Vigilance, is still absconding, and efforts are being made to arrest him.
“The arrests expose a deep-rooted nexus inside the vigilance office itself,” a senior CBI official said on condition of anonymity. “The middlemen were working hand-in-glove with senior officials to fix complaints for hefty bribes.”
The `13 lakh recovered is believed to be part of the larger `20 lakh demand, with the rest reportedly still under negotiation. The CBI has sealed the vigilance office premises and launched a massive probe to identify the senior officers allegedly involved in the racket. This high-profile bust has sent shockwaves through Punjab’s bureaucracy, raising fresh questions about the very department meant to keep corruption in check.
The CBI investigation exposed an exchange of sensitive information relating to pending vigilance matters between Rana and Goyal’s.
“The wider conspiracy, including possible illegal gratification nexus and the role of other persons, is under investigation. The accused private persons were given police gunmen officially. The role and attachment of
Punjab Police gunmen carrying AK-47 rifles with the private accused persons is also being examined,” the CBI spokesperson said.
