Punjab firm employee arrested in bribery case

An employee of a Punjab-based firm has been arrested in connection with a bribery case involving the director of health services in Himachal Pradesh, officials said on Sunday. The arrest comes a few days after Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that state BJP president Rajeev Bindal quit on moral grounds as he was close to the employee identified as Prithvi Singh, a liasioning officer of the Dera Bassi-based firm Bio Aid.

Superintendent of Police in the Himachal Pradesh state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau Shalini Agnihotri told PTI that Prithvi Singh was arrested on Saturday evening in connection with the case. Agnihotri, who also heads Shimla's special investigation unit (SIU) of the bureau, said Singh was called for questioning but he evaded a direct reply when he was shown new evidence collected by the bureau.

The SP said Singh would be produced before a court on Sunday. On May 20, the director of health services Ajay Kumar Gupta was arrested, following which the state government suspended him. He is currently out on bail since May 30.

A 43-second audio recording had surfaced online in which Gupta purportedly asked for a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from Prithvi Singh, the officials said. In reply to a question, the SP said the investigation in the matter was underway and it was not yet established whether the bribe was handed over to the now suspended director or not.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, the chief minister had said, "Bindal was close to the other person (Prithvi Singh), so his name was being associated with the alleged scam. That was why he resigned on moral grounds." After Bindal's resignation on May 27, the health scam took a political turn. Bindal said he resigned from the post to ensure a proper investigation into the corruption charges against the director.