CBI arrests military engineer in Manali for demanding Rs 93,000 bribe

Manali, July 4 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested an Assistant Garrison Engineer, Military Engineering Services, in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, for demanding a bribe of Rs 93,000 and accepting a part payment from an employee of a contractor firm, an official said on Saturday.

K.K. Soni, Assistant Garrison Engineer, Military Engineering Services, Manali, was arrested by the CBI after registration of a case on July 3 on the basis of a complaint lodged by the complainant, who is working as a supervisor in a contractor firm, the CBI said.

The accused Assistant Garrison Engineer demanded a bribe of Rs. 93,000 from the complainant for passing bills of his firm. The complainant made a part payment of Rs 40,000 to Soni on July 3 in his office, the CBI said in a statement.

The accused asked the complainant to come to his office on Saturday along with the remaining bribe amount of Rs 53,000. The CBI laid a trap and caught the accused Assistant Garrison Engineer red handed while demanding total Rs 93.000 and accepting part bribe amount of Rs 53,000 from the complainant.

The bribe amount of Rs 40,000 which was accepted by accused on Friday was also recovered from his residence in MES area, Manali, said the CBI.

Search at his residence is going on and, so far, cash of about Rs 10 lakh has also been recovered, said the statement.

The CBI said Soni will be produced before the Special CBI Court in Shimla on July 5 for custody proceedings.

In a separate case, the CBI secured five year’s rigorous imprisonment for the then Punjab Police Head Constable in a Special CBI Court in Mohali on Saturday in a case related to abduction of a man in Tarn Taran district in 1991, an official said.

The CBI Special Court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on convict Kashmir Singh, said a CBI official in a statement.

The CBI registered the case on March 20, 2006 in compliance of the order dated January 27, 2006 of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana passed in Criminal Writ Petition filed by victim Baljit Singh’s wife.

–IANS

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