Haryana fisheries joint secy Meenakshi Dahiya in ACB net
Sep 21, 2024 12:31 PM IST
A 2013-batch HCS officer, Dahiya was on the run for four months after her junior complained that she was demanding ₹1 lakh as bribe; high court had rejected her anticipatory bail plea a week ago.
After being on the run for four months, Meenakshi Dahiya, a 2013-batch Haryana Civil Service (HCS) officer, was arrested by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) in Panchkula on Friday night.
Dahiya, a joint secretary in the fisheries department, was produced before the duty magistrate on Friday night itself and remanded in judicial custody.
The arrest comes a week after the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed her plea for anticipatory bail.
Dismissing her bail plea, the high court bench had cited evidence linking Dahiya with the recovery of ₹1 lakh bribe from her cook, who was caught red-handed on May 29.
The bench observed that the police recovered the bribe money from her cook and call records and transcripts indicated her involvement, which was corroborated by the complainant’s statement.
In May, the ACB had booked Dahiya and arrested senior-scale stenographer Joginder Singh and peon Satyendra Singh while accepting ₹1 lakh as bribe.
The ACB spokesperson said Rajan Khora, a district officer with the fisheries department, stated in his complaint that Satyendra was demanding the bribe through Joginder at the behest of Dahiya to remove chargesheet orders against him.
A case was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act at the ACB police station in Panchkula.
In June, a Panchkula court dismissed Dahiya’s anticipatory bail plea after the ACB submitted a handwritten note, which recorded a conversation of seeking a bribe and mentioning the ownership of a two-wheeler on which the peon-cum-watchman went to collect the bribe from the district fisheries officer. The ACB said that the two-wheeler belonged to Dahiya.
