Rajasthan ACB busts bribery racket in Transport Department, seizes cash worth Rs 1.20 cr

The Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau has busted a bribery racket in the state's Transport Department, seizing cash worth Rs 1.20 crore from private agents, officials said on Monday. On Sunday night, the ACB arrested Transport Inspector Udaiveer Singh while accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 from private agent Manish Mishra, they said.

Seven other officers and six private agents were also detained, ACB officials said. A probe was ordered after the ACB received complaints from transport company owners four months ago that district transport officers were collecting monthly bribes through private agents by threatening to cancel their registrations.

"Investigations were carried out to verify information following which the action was taken," ACB DG Alok Tripathi said. Additional Director General (ADG) ACB Dinesh M N said 17 teams were formed which raided 13 locations in Jaipur, three in the outskirts and one in Rewari in Haryana.

Shahjahanpur DTO Gajendra Singh, Chomu DTO Vinay Bansal, Jaipur headquarters DTO Mahesh Sharma, RTO inspectors Shivcharan Meena, Alok Budhaniya and Ratan Lal were detained, he said. Private agents Jaswant Singh Yadav, Vishnu Kumar, Mamta, Bunty, Ranveer, Vishnu Kaushik and Pawan alias Pehalwan were also detained, he added.

The matter was raised in the Rajasthan Assembly on Monday. Rajasthan Transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said the action was taken to eliminate corruption in the state Transport Department.

"The Congress government's aim is to end corruption. I assure that justice will be done with those who are not guilty. Innocent officers need not be afraid if ACB team arrives, whereas corrupt officials will not be spared," Khachariyawas told reporters outside the House. The minister said only one inspector was caught red-handed and searches were conducted on the premises of others.

He also told reporters that the inspectors' association members of the Transport Department also met him. "I told them that action against the corrupt will be taken but if someone is innocent, he need not fear," he said.

BJP MLA Kali Charan Saraf said the way ACB has taken action, such a big-scale corruption cannot be limited only to the lower level and a monthly collection must be going to the upper level. "The CM should ensure effective probe and action against whosoever is involved," he said.

Congress MLAs too raised questions on the Transport Department functioning, accusing its officials of indulging in large-scale corruption. "As per my information, majority of officials of the Transport Department are corrupt. The monthly recovery is shared till top, it is a big network," said Congress MLA Rajendra Gudha.

He claimed that the corruption booty goes up to the top level functionaries not merely from the Transport Department, but also from the excise and mines departments. Congress MLA Ramnarayan Meena also said that corruption "has spread its wing and no one is clean".

He said a ministerial sub-committee headed by Urban Development Minister Shanti Dhariwal was constituted to probe decisions taken in the last six months of tenure of the previous BJP government but the committee gave clean chit to the most of of decisions. PTI AG SDA RAX

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