The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has detained two people as part of its ongoing anti-corruption drive for taking bribes totaling Rs 4 lakh in order to have the complainant’s name removed from a police case. The two people who were taken into custody are Vishal Kumar and Jatinder Kumar, both of whom live in Ludhiana, according to a news statement issued by the Vigilance Bureau Punjab.
Officially, a state Vigilance Bureau spokesperson disclosed that Rajiv Kumar, a resident of Basti Jodhewal’s New Subhash Nagar area in Ludhiana, had filed an online complaint on the Chief Minister’s Anti-Corruption Action Line, claiming that Jatinder and Vishal Kumar had taken Rs 4 lakh to clear his name in a murder case.
After looking into the complaint more, it was discovered that Manoj Kumar and others were the targets of a Section 302 Indian Penal Code (IPC) FIR that was filed at the Basti Jodhewal police station in Ludhiana. According to the official statement, Rajiv Kumar, the complainant, was added to this case following Manoj Kumar’s disclosure.
The complainant thereafter met the suspect, Vishal Kumar, who was accused of being connected to Branded Bana owner Jatinder Kumar of Subhash Nagar, Ludhiana.
Vishal Kumar told the complainant, according to the official statement, that he knew someone in Ludhiana who was an ADCP (Additional Commissioner of Police), and that person could prove his innocence by looking into the murder case. In August 2020, the complainant claimed that he was defrauded of Rs 4 lakh by Vishal and Jatinder Kumar, but they were not given any compensation.
Vishal and Jatinder Kumar told Rajiv Kumar, who was later apprehended by the police after they began searching for him, that they had just accepted a Rs 4 lakh down payment to begin an investigation.
In the end, the Sessions Court in Ludhiana cleared the complainant on August 18 after he obtained bail on April 25 of this year, according to the official statement.
He then requested the recovery of his Rs 4 lakh, and when the accused parties refused to cooperate, Rajiv Kumar eventually filed an official complaint and sent the Vigilance Bureau personnel audio recordings as proof.
Investigations revealed that, using their affiliation with the ADCP Ludhiana as a pretense, both accused had requested and been given Rs 4 lakh.
According to an official from the Vigilance Bureau, Vishal Kumar and Jatinder Kumar are the subject of a case that was filed at the Bureau’s Ludhiana police station under Section 7-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120-B of the IPC.
This case is undergoing for additional investigation.