Sukhbir’s ‘help’ accused of taking money for jobs - Police begin probe, record statements of four youths
Thursday, 04/09/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140904/punjab.htm#6
Chandigarh : Four youths, three from Gurdaspur and one from Ropar, today alleged that Harish Dutta, employed at Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s Sector 9 residence here, had taken a bribe of Rs 7 lakh from each for recruitment as police constable.
The youths claimed that Dutta had introduced himself as Deputy Chief Minister’s personal assistant. They said they had documents and a phone recording to substantiate their charges. The Chandigarh police has recorded the statements of the youths who claimed they had paid money to Dutta through a woman on March 30, 2010.
Dutta, employed at the Deputy Chief Minister’s house, takes care of his personal work. He admitted that he had met the three youths.
He said they were brought to the house by a woman, Meena, who was from his village. He denied taking money from them or promising them jobs. He claimed that one of the youths, Vivek, and Meena had earlier given in writing that he (Dutta) had not taken money from anybody.
Jangveer Singh, media adviser to the Deputy Chief Minister, said Dutta had nothing to do with the functioning of the government. “The youths should file a complaint with the police. A fair probe will decide if there was such a scam or not,” he said.
Vivek Kumar, Loven Kumar, Gurpinder Singh from Gurdaspur and Mandeep Singh from Ropar alleged that Dutta and Meena had fleeced them on the pretext of getting them jobs.
“We paid them money on March 30, 2010. After that we appeared for both physical fitness test and interview. But our names did not figure on the list of selected candidates. When confronted, Dutta and Meena told us that we would get the job under the state DGP’s a special quota. But that did not happen.”
Meena told The Tribune that she was a social worker. “I will defend myself before the police, if required,” she added.
