PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE /Dehradun
The Vigilance team on Tuesday arrested a data entry operator of the State Tax Department for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 20,000. The action comes after a complaint was filed by a Haridwar resident.
According to official sources, the complainant stated that his firm, Himanshi Packaging Industry, had been closed in 2021. Before the GST system started, the firm had pending VAT tax of Rs 1.76 lakh for the last three months. The accused employee, Pramod Semwal, had allegedly demanded Rs 1.20 lakh in cash to settle the old Value Added Tax (VAT) dues. As per the complaint, he had asked the complainant to pay the amount in instalments.
Acting on the complaint, the Vigilance team laid a trap and caught Semwal red-handed while he was accepting Rs 20,000 in cash near the office of the assistant commissioner, State Tax, Division-3, Haridwar. Semwal has been working as a data entry operator through Uttarakhand Purva Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL) in the same office for the past 18 years. The Vigilance officials said that further investigation is underway.
