Punjab IAS officer arrested; allegedly demanded bribe

Chandigarh: A senior IAS officer of Punjab was arrested in Chandigarh on Monday on charges of allegedly accepting a bribe, officials said.

A vigilance team from Ludhiana town reportedly arrested VK Janjua, the state's director for industries, from his office in Sector 17 in Chandigarh.

"We had got a complaint against Janjua from a Ludhiana-based businessman, PR Misra. Reportedly, in his complaint, Misra said that Janjua was allegedly demanding a Rs 6,00,000 bribe from him," Ludhiana's Senior Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) SS Mand told IANS.

"A deal was struck for Rs.5,00,000. Following the complaint, we laid a trap and arrested the officer red-handed while he was accepting Rs.2,00,000 in the presence of government officials. We have registered a case against Janjua and started our investigation."

Janjua was a 1989 batch officer.

Mand said Punjab has as rule that if an industrialist has his property in the focal point location of the industrial area, he can buy the adjoining government land at a pre-fixed price.

"Janjua was seeking favours from Misra for facilitating him in a similar property case," he added.