Hiring a middlemen to take bribe

CHANDIGARH: Hiring of middlemen on commission basis for accepting bribe on their behalf is the latest tactic being employed by bribe-seeking government officials. And the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is working on such cases to establish links between middlemen and corrupt officials.

CBI sources said, Income tax officer (ITO) Parmod Arora of Sector 2, Panchkula, had decided to hand over 10% of the bribe money of Rs 2 lakh to Aneesh Garg for accepting it from Subhash Chandra on his behalf on July 19. While Garg was arrested from Pehowa in Kurushetra, Arora, was arrested from Ambala on July 20. Arora had demanded a bribe from Chandra for not slapping income tax notices against him.

Harvinder Behal, a law graduate, who was arrested two days ago, was also allegedly working as a middleman between an official of Andhra Bank and NRI Bhupinder Singh for delivering the bribe to the official. Behal was arrested from near Mehfil hotel in Sector 17, on July 28. The Andhra Bank official, whose role is under the scanner, has been asked to join the CBI investigation within a week. A member of the investigation agency said call details of Behals cellphone are being scrutinized for establishing his links with the bank official. Behal from Ludhiana and has been sent to judicial custody.

There are some cases involving Chandigarh cops where senior officials used lower rank policemen as middlemen. ASI Desh Raj, former head of proclaimed offender (PO) wing, was booked for seeking Rs 3,000 through constable Vajinder Singh on February 25. Though Vajinder was caught, the ASI managed to escape and obtained anticipatory bail from a court.

Legal experts say by hiring middlemen, corrupt officials want to avoid taking marked currency notes. DIG (CBI) Mahesh Aggarwal refused to comment on these cases saying, The cases are under investigation.