Vigilance Bureau's Crackdown: 10 Officials Nabbed, Corruption Cases Surge in Punjab

In a pronounced effort to eradicate corruption, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) successfully caught 10 officials red-handed for accepting bribes across eight operations in July, as revealed by an official spokesperson on Monday.

Supplementing these enforcement actions, the bureau submitted challans for 28 cases to various courts last month, alongside registering six vigilance inquiries to further probe corruption allegations. Amidst these developments, eight criminal cases were filed against 13 individuals, including nine government employees. Notably, five bribery cases resolved in court resulted in seven convictions with sentences ranging from two to five years and fines between Rs 10,000 and Rs 1,00,000.

Highlighting the crackdown was the July 23 arrest of Assistant Sub Inspector Jagtar Singh, apprehended while taking a Rs 12,000 bribe. This arrest followed a trap set by VB officials after a citizen reported the ASI's demands for additional payoffs related to his legal proceedings. A case has been filed against Singh under the Prevention of Corruption Act, with ongoing investigations by the VB.

(With inputs from agencies.)