NEW DELHI: A CBI sleuth on Monday caught senior IAS officer Paramjit Singh, who was working as the director of Punjab’s roadways department in Chandigarh, red-handed while allegedly accepting Rs 2 lakh to recommend the name of an officer for promotion.
Singh was promoted to the IAS from the Punjab state administrative services.
CBI spokesperson RC Joshi told The New Indian Express that a complaint case was lodged with the CBI by an officer of the Punjab government against the director of Punjab Roadways for allegedly demanding a bribe for recommending his name to the principal secretary of the transport department of the Punjab government for promotion to the rank of general manager.
RC Joshi, CBI spokesperson in New Delhi, told The New Indian Express that the complainant's promotion (name withheld as per the rule of the CBI) was due to the rank of general manager for which a departmental promotion committee (DPC) was constituted recently. Paramjit Singh as director of Punjab Roadways was one of the members of the DPC.
Quoting details further from the complaint, Joshi said that an initial demand of Rs 5 lakh was allegedly made by Singh to the complainant for recommending his name to the principal secretary, transport department of Punjab government, for promotion to the rank of general manager.
“It was further alleged that the amount of bribe was negotiated and the accused finally had agreed to accept Rs 2 lakh from the complainant. The director of Punjab Roadways had also allegedly threatened to the complainant to bear the consequences in case the agreed amount of bribe was not paid to him,” Joshi said, quoting from the complaint lodged with the CBI.
Finally, the complainant approached the CBI which laid a trap and caught the director while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh. Joshi said that searches were conducted at the premises of the accused in Chandigarh and Mohali.