Chief Engineer caught red handed taking bribe in Kashmir

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Srinagar, Mar 30 (UNI) The Jammu and Kashmir Vigilance Organisation today arrested a Chief Engineer after he was caught red handed while accepting bribe of Rs 30,000 from a contractor for allotment of work worth Rs 23 lakh in Kupwara district.

A vigilance spokesman said the Chief Engineer of the Roads and Buildings, Kashmir, Nazir Ahmad Shah had demanded Rs 50,000 as illegal gratification from Altaf Hussain Teli, a contractor, for allotment of a contract of constructing a foot bridge with button cap abutment on Pohru 'nullah' in the Kupwara district.

Teli, a resident of Kulangam in Handwara area, lodged a report with the vigilance organisation, alleging that the file relating to the accord of approval for constructing the foot bridge was pending before the accused Chief Engineer, he added.

Teli, in his complaint, said the estimated cost of the work was Rs 23.78 lakh and the Chief Engineer had been demanding Rs 50,000 as bribe from him, the spokesman said.

He said a case was registered against the accused and investigations launched. The vigilance officials laid a trap near the National High School at Karan Nagar here where the accused was caught red handed while accepting the bribe of Rs 30,000 as first instalment from the complainant.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused had asked the complainant to come to his residence at Zakura on the city outskirts this morning with the bribe money.

However, he later asked Teli to wait at the Tourist Reception Centre crossing from where the accused Chief Engineer asked the complainant to follow him.

Shah's official vehicle and that of Teli stopped at Karan Nagar where the complainant handed over Rs 30,000 to the accused who signed the allotment order.

He was asked to reach the Chief Engineer's office to collect the allotment order after it was diarised in the dispatch register. The file pertaining to the allotment of the work was seized from the Chief Engineer's official car.

The spokesman said Shah was already under the scanner of the Vigilance Organisation as he figured as an accused in a case regarding purchase of building material during his posting as the Executive Engineer in Sopore from March 2001 to June 2003.

During the course of investigation, Shah was found to have purchased at highly exorbitant rates thereby causing a loss of Rs 6.38 lakh to the state exchequer, he added.

The spokesman said the investigations into the case have been completed and the report would soon be forwarded to the state government to grant sanction for his prosecution.

UNI

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