Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths arrested today a former official of the state government who was wanted in a bribery case.
The accused Kundan Lal was a section officer in the home department and had allegedly accepted bribe for granting long-term visa (LTV) to Pakistani migrants.
According to ACB officials, Pankaj Kumar Mishra, an assistant section officer from the Union Home Ministry, was arrested along with three agents in May this year for accepting bribe from Pakistani migrants for approving their applications for grant of LTVs.
"During the investigation, the role of a former section officer from state home department, Kundan Lal, had also surfaced. While four persons were arrested, Lal managed to escape," the official said, adding that since then the ACB was searching for him.
Lal allegedly used to collect the application for LTV and would send them to Mishra only after receiving money from the applicants through the agents.
Following a tip-off, an ACB team raided a hotel in the outskirts of the city on May 17 and detained 4 persons, including Mishra. They allegedly used to extort Rs 12,000 from eachmigrantin order to facilitate them in obtaining LTVs.
According to Hindu Singh Sodha, president of the Seemant Lok Sangthan, an organistation advocating for the rights of Pakistani migrants in India, the penalty for delay in renewal of the LTV by just one day is Rs 2500, but the accused had been deliberately delaying the renewal without taking the money from the applicants.
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