Patna: The Special Vigilance Unit (SVU) on Friday arrested two officials of the Horticulture Department on charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 7000 from an employee. The vigilance officials caught both the accused, named Shashank Kumar and Arvind Jha, red-handed while they were taking the bribe. As per the SVU officials, Shashank and Arvind are working as an assistant director and an office employee, respectively.
The culprits were demanding a bribe from their fellow employee, Gorakh Ram, in return for releasing his salary. The guilty parties were brought to Patna, and all the legal actions are being taken against them. The victim was facing a lot of issues because his salary was withheld, and he was frequently harassed that his salary would be released in exchange for money.
Additional director general (ADG) of SVU, Pankaj Darad, said, “Gorakh, who works in the horticulture department in Hajipur, had his Dec 2024 salary withheld. He approached Shashank and his associate Arvind regarding the release of his salary. In response, they demanded a bribe of Rs 7,000 from him. They repeatedly pressured him to pay the money.”
The ADG further added that the victim filed a complaint against both the accused with the SVU on Jan 5. The SVU team started an investigation after they found that the complaint was valid. Then, the SVU team created a team to catch the culprits in on Friday. The moment Shashank and Arvind were taking Rs 7,000 as a bribe, suddenly the SVU team appeared on the spot and caught them. The incident took place in Vaishali.
