Ludhiana: A local court in Ludhiana has sentenced an outsourced municipal corporation junior engineer (JE) to four years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a ₹25,000 fine in a corruption case involving a ₹5,000 bribe.Special judge Amrinder Singh Shergill convicted 35-year-old Davinder Singh, an outsourced JE in the operation and maintenance cell of MC Zone B, for illegally settling the regularisation of unapproved water and sewerage connections. If he defaults on paying the fine, he will serve an additional four months of rigorous imprisonment.The case stems from a complaint filed by local resident Sahib Singh on July 22, 2020. Sahib Singh stated that his family owned two properties with commercial shops and residential upper floors in Gobind Colony, which lacked formal utility connection receipts from previous owners.On July 16, 2020, the accused inspected the properties and informed the owner that illegal connections carried fines between ₹15,000 and ₹20,000. He offered to settle the issue for ₹12,000—promising to issue two official receipts worth ₹2,350 each in exchange for a personal bribe of ₹5,000.The following day, after receiving ₹7,000 for govt fees, the accused issued official receipts totaling ₹4,700 and demanded his ₹5,000 bribe. The complainant recorded the conversation, compiled the audio onto a CD, and approached the economic offences wing of the Vigilance Bureau with ten ₹500 currency notes.A Vigilance Bureau team caught Davinder Singh red-handed at the complainant’s shop while accepting the ₹5,000 bribe on July 22, 2020, and subsequently filed a chargesheet under the Prevention of Corruption Act.Although the accused pleaded innocence during the trial, the court ruled that audio evidence and official records proved both demand and acceptance. The court noted that the convict caused wrongful loss to the municipal corporation by failing to collect full commercial utility charges from the property owner.
