IAS officer jailed for taking bribe

An IAS officer of 2013 batch, Jitendra Gupta, was arrested and sent to jail for accepting Rs 80,000 as bribe from a truck driver in Kaimur district.

The arrest was made after the truck owner of a Punjab-based company lodged a complaint with the Vigilance Department in Patna stating that the officer had been demanding Rs 1.45 lakh to release the four trucks he had seized on NH 2.

The four trucks, carrying iron rods, were on way from Jamshedpur to Punjab. However, Gupta, posted as sub-divisional officer (SDO) at Mohania in western Bihar, intercepted the vehicles passing through the state and seized them on the charge of overloading.

The vehicles were, however, not parked at the nearest police station as per the rule, nor the seizure list given to the truck drivers or truck owner.

Instead, the IAS officer, through his driver Sanjay Kumar and a home guard jawan Ashok Srivastava, sought Rs 1.45 lakh to release the seized vehicles. After much negotiation, the deal was, however, struck for Rs 80,000.

Meanwhile, the truck owner approached the vigilance sleuths in Patna, who prima facie found the charges true.

A 15-member Vigilance team, headed by DSP Vijay Singh, laid the trap and raided the IAS officer’s residence in Kaimur when his driver was accepting Rs 80,000 from the truck owner. The seizure list was also recovered from a vehicle parked in the IAS officer’s house.

Gupta, his driver and the home guard jawan were arrested and brought to Patna vigilance office for interrogation on Wednesday.Later, they were produced before the special vigilance judge who remanded them in 14-days judicial custody.

Gupta is the second serving IAS officer who has been sent behind bars. Earlier, S S Verma, Minor Irrigation Secretary, was jailed on corruption charges.