The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has apprehended an employee of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and a middleman while they were allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 7 lakh, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
The arrested individual has been identified as Munish Narang, an enforcement officer at the EPFO, according to Jitender Kumar, the spokesperson for the Gurugram ACB. Narang had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from Sandeep Kumar, a factory owner, through the intermediary named Ravi. The bribe was supposedly in exchange for resolving a PF-related violation issue.
After negotiations, the bribe amount was settled at Rs 7 lakh. Subsequently, the factory owner filed a complaint against both Narang and Ravi. A special team was formed, and a raid was conducted on Monday, resulting in the red-handed apprehension of Narang and Ravi while they were accepting the bribe.
“The ACB team has initiated further investigation by registering a case against the accused officer and middleman under the Prevention of Corruption Act at ACB police station in Gurugram. The accused were produced in a city court on Tuesday and have been remanded in judicial custody,” stated Kumar.
In a separate incident, the ACB also arrested a junior engineer from the Sohna Municipal Corporation on Tuesday for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from a contractor. The accused, identified as Om Prakash, purportedly demanded the bribe in return for allowing the contractor to resume construction work.
“We are currently interrogating the accused, and he will be presented in a city court on Wednesday,” the ACB spokesperson added.
These recent arrests by the ACB highlight the ongoing efforts to combat corruption and enforce ethical practices within public organizations and departments.