KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, June 1: A JBVNL (Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited) head clerk was arrested by a team of the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) while taking a bribe at the power board’s Jhinkpani office in West Singhbhum on Thursday.
Identified as Sambhu Kumar, the arrested person was allegedly taking Rs 5,000 from a villager Sagar Hessa for settling a matter of refund of the amount deposited with the power department towards taking power connection.
According to ACB sources, Hessa had in December 2022 wanted to take a power connection for a pulverizer and haller machine and deposited Rs 81,100 with the JBVNL’s Jhinkpani sub-divisional office. But later he came to know that the amount deposited with the power office was excessively high.
Subsequently, Hessa wanted to get back the excess amount and approached the JBVNL’s sub-divisional office. Here only he came across the head clerk Sambhu Kumar who demanded him to pay Rs 5,000 as a bribe for settling the issue.
According to the sources, Hessa was reluctant to pay the bribe hence he approached the ACB by coming over to the bureau’s divisional office at Sonari in Jamshedpur.
Having heard the complainant’s version and verifying it, a team of ACB went over to Jhinkpani and asked Hessa to pay Rs 5,000 to Sambhu Kumar. As soon as he paid the bribe, the ACB sleuths who were around swooped over the head clerk and arrested him with the bribe money.