NEW DELHI: A Union Home Ministry official, arrested for accepting a bribe for granting of a long-term visa to Pakistani immigrants, has been suspended.
The ministry is also conducting an inquiry to find out whether there were lacunae in clearing the pending cases of Pakistani immigrants applying for Indian citizenship or extending the long-term visa, and how to improve the whole process.
PK Mishra, a senior secretariat assistant in the Foreigners Division of the Home Ministry, was arrested along with three others by the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau last week and has been placed under suspension, ministry officials said Thursday.
According to government rules, any official arrested for any offence and in police custody for more than 48 hours is deemed suspended from service.
Mishra was allegedly exploiting the process of delay in taking decisions on granting Indian citizenship or extending a long-term visa to Pakistani immigrants by demanding and accepting bribes, another official said. He was not the deciding authority but was part of processing the applications.
Besides Mishra, three others—Ashok, Govind and Bhagwan Ram—all Pakistani immigrants, were also arrested.
The ministry has also received a report from the Rajasthan Police on the arrests and the alleged racket of ‘bribe-for-visa’, an official said.
State police said the racket had been operating in the region for several years in connivance with government officials, who used an extensive network of agents, many of them Pakistani Hindu immigrants.