CBI arrests senior Punjab official for bribery

The CBI has arrested the joint director of Punjab State Board of Technical Education and Industrial Training (PSBTE and IT) for taking a bribe of Rs 50,000, an official said on Saturday.

Jagjeet Singh was on Friday caught red-handed during a raid conducted by Central Bureau of Investigation officers at his office and residential premises.

Singh was caught taking bribe for favouring a man in getting his ITI institute de-affiliated.

He has been booked under Prevention of Corruption Act, CBI spokesperson R.K. Gaur said.

In his complaint to the CBI, the victim said two PSBTE and IT officials had recently visited his ITI institute in Chandigarh and informed that they had been directed to conduct an inspection.

“The complainant was alleged of running his institute without proper lab equipments, charging fees from students of reserved category, taking admission of students who did not attend the class and having only 10 per cent attendance.

“The PSBTE and IT department also issued show cause notice for de-affiliation of the complainant’s institute. When the complainant visited the department’s joint director office, he demanded Rs 50,000 from him to resolve the issue,” Gaur said.

PSBTE and IT is an autonomous statutory authority for regulating and controlling academic standards in institutes of technical education and for making admissions and conducting examinations in Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in Punjab and Chandigarh.