Retired colonel among 2 held while accepting ₹22 lakh bribe
Those arrested are retired Lt colonel Amarjit Singh and Mukesh Kumar, a retired army personnel and now a contractual clerk at ECHS polyclinic in Hisar who were claiming to be officials of Regional Centre, ECHS, Hisar.
A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials on Wednesday arrested a retired colonel and an ex-servicemen from Charkhi Dadri while accepting a bribe of ₹22.5 lakhs from the owner of a private multi-specialty clinic owner in neighbouring Rajasthan’s Rajgarh town to “sort out” issues with Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), officials said on Thursday.
Those arrested are retired Lt colonel Amarjit Singh and Mukesh Kumar, a retired army personnel and now a contractual clerk at ECHS polyclinic in Hisar who were claiming to be officials of Regional Centre, ECHS, Hisar.
The clinic owner Dr Rajesh Mehta had come in contact with Amarjit Singh, an ex-in-charge of polyclinic in Rajgarh, after a team of ECHS came to his specialty clinic and allegedly collected 20-25 ECHS cards of ex-servicemen without giving any receipt or document for them, the CBI FIR has alleged.
“Retired colonel allegedly assured the owner that he would sort out the matter if he agreed to pay ₹25 lakh bribe. He also asked the clinic owner to speak to Mukesh, a clerk at ECHS polyclinic in Hisar, who allegedly goes by multiple aliases and a colonel,” the CBI has alleged in the FIR.
As per the FIR, the colonel asked the owner to speak to Mukesh, who negotiated the bribe amount and agreed to bring down the amount to ₹22.5 lakh.
The CBI team laid a trap and nabbed Amarjit Singh and Mukesh Kumar red-handed while taking the bribe from the complainant at the former’s farmhouse at Chandwas village in Charkhi Dadri. The CBI officials said that they are probing the role of the retired colonel.
