Red-handed: Revenue official held for taking ‘bribe’

RAWALPINDI:

An official of the Rawalpindi city government has been arrested on corruption charges.

Saqib Shehzad working at the Project Management Unit (PMU) of Revenue Board, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Department (ACD) for allegedly taking bribe from a man for transferring land records.

The official allegedly demanded Rs100,000 from Atif Mehmood for transfer of his 50-kanal land records.

Mehmood complained to the Anti-Corruption Department. A team headed by Inspector Sheikh Nasir and judicial magistrate Shaukat Abbas Ranjha was formed to observe the episode.

The team gave ‘marked currency notes’ to the complainant to hand over to the revenue official, while monitoring the transaction from a specific location at Faizabad, said an official requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to divulge the information.

As soon as Mehmood handed over the bribe amount, the ACD team rushed to the spot and confiscated the amount from Shehzad.

Assistant Coordination Officer Murree Tahir Farooq said that though Shehzad was not the employee of the revenue board, he was working at the computer section of PMU Murree.

A case has been registered against Shehzad and investigation is under way, he said.

PMU is a project of the Punjab government for computerisation of land records under the administrative control of the board of revenue.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2015.