Chandigarh: The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government Friday suspended vigilance bureau chief S.P.S Parmar along with two senior police officers for failing to nab two accused of an alleged scam at transport offices in Punjab.
1994 batch IPS officer P K. Sinha, who is ADGP intelligence, had been given the additional charge of the vigilance bureau.
With this move, the AAP government has changed three vigilance bureau chiefs in less than two months. 1997 batch IPS officer Parmar was made vigilance bureau chief 26 March, replacing G Nageshwar Rao who too had stayed on the post for barely over a month. Rao, in turn, had replaced Varinder Kumar, who was appointed as VB chief in May 2022.
The two other suspended officers of the vigilance bureau are Assistant Inspector General, SAS Nagar, Swarandeep Singh, and Senior Superintendent of Police, Jalandhar, Harpreet Singh.
Highly-placed sources in the Punjab Police told ThePrint that all these changes have been brought about on the behest of the AAP’s Delhi leadership, which is closely monitoring the working of the state bureaucracy.
Parmar, they said, was shifted for his team’s inability to nab two officers, one of them a PCS officer, posted as regional transport officers (RTOs) who are on the run in corruption cases filed following state-wide raids conducted at transport authority offices.
On 7 April, in a sweeping crackdown planned and executed by Parmar, VB had conducted surprise inspections at Regional Transport Authority (RTA) offices and driving test centers, leading to the arrest of 24 persons allegedly involved in bribery and malpractices. As many 16 FIRs were registered and authorities confiscated Rs 40,900 from middlemen who were extorting money from citizens seeking driving licenses, driving tests and other services.
During the interrogation of the arrested persons, the names of senior officers, including those posted as RTOs, cropped up as alleged beneficiaries of the money being gathered by the agents from the public.
Two weeks later, the secretary, transport department, gave sanction for the investigation and arrest of these officers. The sources said the investigation sanction was obtained after getting the office of the secretary transport Varun Roojam opened at midnight within hours of his being given the additional charge of secretary transport.
Subsequently, VB arrested SBS Nagar assistant transport officer Ramandeep Singh Dhillon and booked Mohali and SBS Nagar RTOs Pardeep Singh and Ravinder Kumar Bansal. The SBS Nagar RTO is a 2023 batch PCS officer.
Both Bansal and Singh are on the run, and the VB’s inability to nab them in the four days following investigation sanction had led to suspension of Parmar. The same decision was made in the case of Swarandeep Singh and Harpreet Singh who headed the investigation in Mohali and SBS Nagar.
Sources in the vigilance bureau added that the officers were dealt “most unfairly” as expecting arrests in just four days of the investigation sanction did not warrant suspension.
A VB spokesperson said the April 7 raids were carried out following numerous complaints received through the Chief Minister’s Anti-Corruption Action Line. The operation targeted RTA officials and agents who were acting as intermediaries, charging illegal fees to expedite license processing or manipulate driving test results, the spokesperson added.
Among those arrested was Sukhwinder Singh, a private agent from Mohali, who was caught red-handed accepting Rs 2,500 as part of a Rs 5,000 bribe to facilitate a driving license and ensure clearance of the test. In Fatehgarh Sahib, another agent, Paramjit Singh, was apprehended while taking Rs 5,000 for similar illegal services.
He further informed that in Ludhiana, the Economic Offence Wing detained three individuals—Pankaj Arora alias Sunny, Deepak Kumar and Manish Kumar—for demanding bribes ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,500. The Ludhiana VB range also arrested two more agents, Taisiff Ahmed Ansari and Honey Arora, for allegedly charging Rs 7,000 and Rs 5,500 respectively to secure licenses.
In Jalandhar, Mohit and Vijay Kumar were caught red handed accepting Rs 2,000 for fast-tracking driving test appointments. In Hoshiarpur, agent Ashok Kumar was arrested for taking Rs 5,000 to clear a driving test without proper trials. In Kapurthala, agent Sher Amrik Singh was held with Rs 12,000 in cash, the VB spokesperson said.
Action was taken against RTA employees—Jatinder Singh, a Junior Assistant and Manish Kumar, a Data Entry Operator—along with two private agents, Kewal Krishan and Kamal Kumar, for their involvement in corrupt practices.
Similar actions were taken against private agents and other individuals in Sangrur, Tarn Taran, Bathinda, and Gurdaspur.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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