NEW DELHI: A Union Home Ministry official and three others were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) late on Friday night for allegedly demanding and accepting bribes from Pakistani Hindu migrants for granting Long Term Visas (LTVs), officials said. Senior Office Assistant PK Mishra and his three agents - Ashok, Govind and Bhagwan Ram - were detained on Thursday night from a hotel in the outskirts of Jodhpur.
The four accused were arrested after an FIR was registered against them, ACB officials said. Another accused, a former assistant section officer of the Rajasthan Home secretariat, Kundan Lal, is absconding. Mishra, Kundan and the three agents are accused of deliberately not approving applications for visa extension and LTVs to migrants from Pakistan. The three agents identified themselves as Pakistani migrants who had acquired Indian citizenship.
The visa applications were sent from the foreigner registration office in Jodhpur to the state home department in Jaipur, which then forwarded them to the Union Home Ministry, where Mishra would not approve the applications unless he received the bribes through his agents, claimed ACB officials. Depending on the financial capability of the poor migrants, they would charge Rs 500 to 2,000, or even more in some cases, for clearing the applications, ACB officials added. Mishra used to visit Jodhpur to collect the money extorted by his agents.