Chandigarh, May 31:Five persons — a Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, Labour Enforcement Officer, both posted in Chandigarh, two partners of a Bathinda private firm and an employee of a construction company — have been arrested by the CBI in a Rs 1.30-lakh bribe case.Those arrested are Mahesh Chand Sharma, Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, Vivek Naik, Labour Enforcement Officer, Akhand Raj Singh of Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd, Bathinda, and Gurmeet Singh and Munish Garg, both from Advantage HR Solutions, Bathinda.
The CBI had a tip-off about some persons acting as middlemen between industrialists, contractors and government officials. “They used to negotiate and collect illegal gratification from industrialists and contractors in lieu of extending favours to them by facilitating relief in inspections carried out in their establishments,” the CBI said.On May 30, the CBI laid a trap at Hotel Western Court, Sector 10, Panchkula, where the suspects were supposed to meet. The Labour Enforcement Officer and three others met at the hotel.
While leaving the hotel, Gurmeet handed over a packet containing the money to Naik. Acting swiftly, the CBI officials nabbed all suspects.
“Naik claimed that he had taken a bribe of Rs 1.30 lakh, which was to be shared with the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, following which he was asked to call his senior and inform him about having received the bribe money,” CBI sources said. Following the call, the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner was also arrested.
Searches were carried out at offices and houses of the suspects and some documents were recovered. All suspects were produced before the CBI court, Sector 43, today. While CBI sleuths demanded a five-day remand, the court sent them to three-day remand.
Dy Chief Labour Commissioner was to get share
Those arrested are Mahesh Chand Sharma, Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, Vivek Naik, Labour Enforcement Officer, Akhand Raj Singh of Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd, Bathinda, and Gurmeet Singh and Munish Garg, both from Advantage HR Solutions, Bathinda. Naik claimed that he had taken a bribe of Rs 1.30 lakh, which was to be shared with the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner.
Middlemen used to collect money
Gurmeet Sidhu and Munish Garg were acting as middlemen between Mahesh Chand Sharma, Vivek Naik and other unknown officers of the Labour Department. It is alleged that they used to collect Rs 35,000 each from private parties on a quarterly basis for allowing them to manipulate provisions related to compliance of the EPF Act and labour laws.
What had happened
According to the CBI, Naik had conducted an inspection on the premises of Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd in Bathinda on May 8. Naik detected irregularities in the records relating to compliance of labour laws and provisions of the EPF. The same day, Akhand Raj Singh, an employee of the construction company, informed Gurmeet regarding the inspection and claimed that despite paying Rs 30,000 on a quarterly basis, the inspection was carried out. On May 15, Gurmeet contacted Naik, who then asked him to arrange bribe money from the Nagarjuna company.
