Engineer arrested while accepting bribe in Kashmir

Jammu, June 24 (IANS) An engineer working for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir was Tuesday caught redhanded by the state vigilance organisation (SVO) while accepting a bribe of Rs.1 lakh from a contractor, officials said.

Junior engineer Muhammad Yunus of the PMGSY division in Bilawar was arrested by a special squad of the SVO while accepting the bribe from a local contractor in the presence of witnesses, an SVO officer told IANS here.

A police complaint had been lodged with the SVO by the contractor against the engineer for asking a bribe to process the contractor's arrear payment of Rs.15 lakh.

"The total cost of the work undertaken by the contractor was Rs.50 lakh, out of which the contractor had already received Rs.35 lakh," the official said.

Jammu and Kashmir has an independent state vigilance commission, whose investigating agency, the SVO, works directly under the supervision of the commission.

Shaikh Owais, an IPS officer of additional director general of police rank, who heads the SVO, told IANS the organisation would continue its anti-graft campaign to weed out corrupt officials from various state government departments.