He had the Vigilance officers hounding him. And when he was finally caught, Ludhiana West Tehsildar Arvind Parkash Verma’s opened a can of worms. Verma was arrested in September 2008 and many said the confessions he made to the Vigilance Bureau could well become a cause of worry for some senior officials of the district administration.

The statement that Verma has made to the VB said the on each working day, he used to collect Rs 7.5 lakh, out of which 25 per cent was shared by the office staff. Of the remaining 75 per cent, Verma used to pay Rs 2 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 to three senior officials of the district administration.

Elaborating on what Verma had confessed, a senior official said, “The 25 per cent that the office staff shared among themselves would be from the collections coming through them only and not the total collection of the day a huge part of which came through private agents. He (Verma) used to keep the remaining booty with him.”

Verma was caught red-handed by the VB in September last year for accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from Baljit Singh, a resident of Baddowal village. The Vigilance officials said the questioning had revealed that as many as 150 revenue-related documents were registered by his office on a single working day. The registration rates were fixed at Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 depending on the price of the property the premium property owners having to cough up more.

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