Chandigarh January 8
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has arrested Karun Dhir, a clerk posted at the Water Supply and Sewerage Branch of the Municipal Corporation in Jalandhar, red-handed while accepting a bribe of ₹2,000.
This occurred on January 8, 2026, as part of the bureau’s ongoing anti-corruption efforts in the state.
A VB spokesperson announced that the arrest followed a complaint from a resident of Ram Nagar, Jalandhar. The complainant operates an ahata (small eatery/bar) near Doaba Chowk in Jalandhar for the past 15 months.
According to the complaint, the accused clerk visited the ahata and threatened to disconnect the water and sewerage connections, claiming they were illegal and that dirty water was being discharged into the sewage system.
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The complainant explained that the connections had been in place for nearly 15 years, but Karun Dhir continued the threats and demanded an illegal bribe to refrain from disconnecting the services.
The complainant then approached the Vigilance Bureau, alleging that the clerk demanded ₹2,000 as a bribe to avoid disconnection. The complainant had also recorded the entire bribe-demand conversation.
Following a preliminary inquiry that confirmed the clerk’s pattern of accepting small bribes from people seeking official work, the VB team set up a trap. They caught Karun Dhir accepting the ₹2,000 bribe from the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses.
Additionally, during a search of the accused’s house, the VB team recovered ₹2.72 lakh in cash.
A case has been registered against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act at the Vigilance Bureau police station in Jalandhar. The investigation is ongoing.
