The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB), during its ongoing drive against corruption, has arrested Jatinder Pal Piplani, a recovery agent attached with the Punjab Gramin Bank, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs. 50000 as a second instalment.Disclosing this here today an official spokesperson of the state VB said the arrest has been made following a complaint lodged by a resident of Chheharta in Amritsar.
He further added that the complainant has approached the VB and informed that the Punjab Gramin Bank had declared his property a non-performing asset due to default in payment of house loan and recovery file was assigned to the accused recovery agent for recovery of the pending loan amount.
The accused had threatened the complainant that he along with police party would forcefully took possession of his house and demanded a bribe of Rs 2,00,000 on behalf of Bank Manager for settling the case in his favour. The complainant added that the said agent had already taken Rs 50,000 as a first instalment and now pressurising him to pay the remaining amount of Rs 1,50,000 for the Bank Manager.
The spokesperson further informed that after a preliminary verification of this complaint, the VB team laid a trap during which the said Recovery Agent was arrested red handed while he was accepting Rs 50000 as a second instalment of bribe from the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses.
In this regard, a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the aforementioned accused at the VB Police Station, Amritsar Range. The accused would be produced in the competent court tomorrow and the role of Bank Manager would be verified during further investigation of this case, he said.