Judicial Magistrate suspended for taking bribe through peon

Ranchi, Sep 13 (UNI) The Jharkhand High Court today suspended with immediate effect a Judicial Magistrate(JM) in connection with allegation of taking bribe through his peon from an undertrial promising to grant bail.

Official sources said an inquiry would be initiated against the suspended JM.

Haider Ali, son of an undertrial Saleem Sahib, in a letter to the Judicial Commissioner, Ranchi, complained that Vibhuti Kumar Singh, peon of the Judicial Magistrate Vinod Chandra Pandey, asked for a bribe with a promise to get bail for his father.

''If anything is found against Mr Pandey, there will be departmental proceeding against him and if necessary criminal case will also be lodged against him,'' sources said.

Haider also alleged that Avinash Pandey, a lawyer of district court, acted as the mediator.

Mr Jagdish Prasad Sahu, the petitioner's lawyer, said the peon had earlier asked for approximately Rs five lakh for granting bail to Saleem Sahib. But later on Vibhuti demanded Rs 1.5 lakh.

Haider Ali gave Rs 14,000 to Vibhuti yesterday, which was recovered by the Kotwali police officials.

Vibhuti was arrested and taken into judicial custody. The Kotwali police station lodged an FIR under Section 406 and 420.

UNI