Punjab: Man held for offering bribe to state tax officer

Unlike its usual operations involving nabbing government officials for accepting bribes, the Punjab Vigilance department has held a private individual for offering money to a government employee.

The vigilance bureau on Tuesday said it has arrested a private person for offering Rs 50,000 to Additional Commissioner State Tax (ACST) for exempting goods and services tax (GST) on tobacco products.

Chief Director-cum-DGP Vigilance Bureau B K Uppal said Varun Mahajan, a resident of Jalandhar, was arrested on the complaint of ACST (GST) Jalandhar Dipender Singh Garcha.

The complainant approached the Vigilance department, alleging that the accused Varun Mahajan, an agent, was offering him Rs 50,000 to release his consignment of tobacco products without paying GST which was received through the railways at Jalandhar station.

After verifying the information, a team from the vigilance department laid a trap in which Mahajan was arrested on the spot while offering the bribe of Rs 50,000 to the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses.

Uppal said a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the accused at VB police station in Jalandhar and further investigation was under progress.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)