Charges framed against two Punjab Transport Dept employees

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 1

The CBI court has framed charges against two employees of the Punjab Transport Department, Sarwan Kumar Bhatia and Damandeep Singh, in an alleged corruption case registered against them five years ago.

The charges have been framed for the offences punishable under Sections 7, 13 (1) (d) read with Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and Section 120 of the Indian Penal Code.

Narender Singh, public prosecutor, argued for framing of charges against the accused.

Sarwan Kumar Bhatia was an assistant in the department, while Damandeep Singh was working on a contractual basis. The CBI registered the case on May 5, 2017 on a complaint of a person, Kamal Kumar, a resident of Nayagaon.

Kamal Kumar told the CBI that after purchasing a car, he visited the Transport Office of Punjab, Sector 17, Chandigarh, for issuance of a registration certificate (RC) and the all-India permit on May 3,2017 and met Sarwan Kumar Bhatia, assistant, Transport Office, and submitted his file.

Kamal Kumar said he was forced to run from pillar to post to get the all-India permit for his car. He alleged that Sarwan Kumar Bhatia calculated the total fee chargeable Rs 16,000 and a penalty of Rs 50 late fee per day. He said on further enquiry, he found actual fee for the issuance of RC and all-India permit was Rs 9,500 only.

He said he pleaded Sarwan Bhatia not to charge extra citing his financial condition. After laying the trap, the CBI arrested the accused for taking a bribe of Rs 18,300. The CBI claimed that Bhatia was not entitled to receive fee in cash from the applicants. The applicants can deposit the fee online and Sarwan’s work was to forward the applicant’s file with the receipt of online payment.

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