Purnia district land acquisition officer held for taking Rs 1.3 lakh as bribe

PATNA: Vigilance sleuths arrested Purnia district land acquisition officer (DLAO) Arvind Kumar Bharti (54) while he was allegedly accepting Rs 1.3 lakh as bribe from one Nitesh Kumar Raj at his office in Purnia collectorate on Friday.
However, the head clerk of the office, Madhav Chandra Sah, managed to escape.
Sources said Bharti was trapped by a vigilance team led by DSP Surendra Kumar Mauar. They added Bharti and Sah had demanded bribe from Raj, a resident of of Oli Tola of village under the Maranga police station area in Purnia, to disburse compensation of Rs 31.59 lakh for a piece of land acquired for construction of a national highway (NH) in Purnia.
“One kattha of land owned by Raj’s mother Bindu Devi had been acquired by the government for the construction of the NH, but the compensation amount was not disbursed.The DLAO had been delaying release of compensation amount in want of bribe. Raj lodged a complaint with the vigilance department on June 29. On July 9, his complaint was verified and found to be true,” the sources added.
On Friday, Raj reached the DLAO’s office and approached Sah for payment of bribe amount. “Sah asked Raj to approach Bharti. While Bharti was caught taking bribe by the vigilance sleuths, Sah managed to escape,” a vigilance officer said, adding Bharti is a Bihar Administrative Service officer and a resident of Kapasia in Aurangabad district.
The officer said Bharti would be produced in a special vigilance court in Bhagalpur within 24 hours.