State

Electricity department’s JEn arrested for taking bribe in Bikaner’s Deshnok

The accused officer allegedly framed a man in a bogus case of power theft.

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February 1, 2018, 3:41 pm

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ACB trap

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Jaipur: A junior engineer (JEn) of Jodhpur Discom was arrested on Thursday after the Rajasthan police’s anti-corruption bureau (ACB) allegedly caught him red-handed taking a bribe of Rs 15,000. The JEn was deputed in Deshnok in Bikaner and had allegedly framed a man in a bogus case of power theft. He was demanding money from the man to withdraw the penalty of Rs 4 lakh.

SP, ACB Bikaner Mamta Rahul said that one Sandeep Soni, a resident of Fatehabad district in Haryana made a complaint with the ACB.

“He said that his maternal uncle Prabhu Dayal Soni owns an agriculture land measuring nearly 6 bigha near Deshnok in Bikaner. There is a house belonging to his uncle with a power connection on this land. Sandeep said that he lived on the property and looked after it,” said the officer.

SP said that pilgrims coming to Deshnok also stayed in the property.

Nearly a week ago, Jodhpur discom’s Junior Engineering (JEn) Prakash came to the property with some employees of the power department and took away the cable of the generator. Sandeep was not there at that time, but was informed by some people that JEn and his men had confiscated the cable.

Sandeep came to know that the JEn was planning to frame him with bogus charges of power theft and impose a penalty of Rs 4 lakh. Sandeep was also informed that if he would pay a bribe of Rs 1 lakh, the penalty wouldn’t be imposed.

“We verified the complaint on Wednesday when Prakash took Rs 5000 from Sandeep as the first installment of bribe. Then he started threatening Sandeep to give more money. On Thursday, we caught Prakash taking the bribe of Rs 15,000 red-handed and arrested him,” said the SP.

First published: August 24, 2017