Purnia DAO arrested on graft charge

PATNA: Purnia district agriculture officer (DAO) Shankar Kumar Jha was caught red handed by the vigilance investigation bureau while accepting Rs.1.5 lakh as bribe in lieu of re-validating the license of a shop on Tuesday.
A bureau team headed by deputy superintendent of police Vimlendu Kumar Verma laid a trap and arrested the DAO his office when he was accepting the bribe from a complainant Bambam Alok Choudhary.
Authoritative sources said that the DAO and his clerk Ajay Kumar had demanded a bribe from Choudhary, a resident of Lakdipatti near Gulab Bagh in Purnia town, for renewal of license of his shop. Choudhary had lodged a complaint with the bureau police station on December 14 against the DAO and his office assistant. The allegations were found to be true during preliminary investigation conducted by the officials of the bureau.
On Tuesday, a trap team led by DSP Verma caught the DAO red handed when he was taking the bribe in his office. Verma later told media persons in Purnia that the arrested DAO would be produced before a special vigilance court in Bhagalpur after interrogation.
Senior officials in the bureau office said that investigations were on to ascertain whether the arrested DAO had amassed wealth to his known sources of income.
About two years ago, sub-divisional agriculture officer Prafulla Kumar Jha was arrested from Darbhanga by the vigilance bureau officials for taking a bribe of Rs.13,500 for clearing payment against the work done in the department.
In 2015, the district agriculture officer of Buxar Prem Shankar Ram was arrested from his rented accommodation while accepting Rs.1 lakh as bribe for clearing bills.