CAUGHT IN TRAP The complainant went with meet the accused with a CBI official, where they recorded the conversation in which the accused demanded `44,000 bribe for senior garrison engineer

PANCHKULA: The assistant garrison engineer, Western Command, RS Verma, who was arrested on Thursday red handed while accepting `25,000 as bribe at Chandimandir, was seeking bribe for his senior officer too. This fact has been revealed in the transcript of conversations recorded by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The transcript of RS Verma and the complainant was submitted before the court on Friday.Meanwhile, the CBI did not press for RS Verma’s police custody and the court sent him to Ambala jail.

The transcript revealed how bribe needed to be paid for getting completion certificates and how contractors are being threatened in the name of blacklisting.

Surender Sharma, a resident of Hisar, who is one of the partners in AR Construction Co, had not only complained against RS Verma but also against his senior BM Verma. He had alleged that both the garrison engineers were not clearing his 3 bills amounting to `10 lakh, `14 lakh and `2 lakh.

He had told CBI that for clearing bills, RS Verma was seeking `60,000 while for BM Verma he was asking 10% of a tender of `44 lakh, ie `44,000.

Sharma gave the complaint on November 23 and the same day he went with CBI’s recorder to meet RS Verma. After the conversation was recorded, the trap was laid on November 24 where he was arrested with `25,000 as bribe.

The CBI told the court that RS Verma directed Sharma to arrange as much as he could and hand over the same to him.

As per the recordings, BM Verma was not present in his office, so Sharma couldn’t go and meet him. The CBI told the court that verification of demand of bribe by BM Verma couldn’t be done on this account. The CBI also told the court that when Sharma asked RS Verma that whether he should call BM Verma on phone to verify his demand, he suggested him to meet him in person.

“Unfortunately, he couldn’t be trapped. My work at Chandimandir cantonment was related to fencing, tiling and other maintenance work,” Sharma told HT.