Haryana IAS officer arrested for accepting bribe in exchange for transfer approval

In a significant anti-corruption development, Haryana State Warehousing Corporation's managing director, Jaibir Singh Arya, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for demanding a bribe to sanction a transfer. Arya is the second IAS officer to be arrested for corruption this week.

Jaibir Singh Arya and middleman Munish Sharma were produced before a court in Panchkula by the ACB. The court remanded Arya in one-day police custody, while Sharma, who owns a shop in Phase 2, Industrial Area, was sent to judicial custody. Arya's arrest came after Sharma was apprehended accepting a bribe of ₹3 lakh on his behalf.

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The ACB spokesperson stated that the bribe had been demanded from the complainant to expedite the transfer of his wife, an officer of the corporation, to Kurukshetra. The agreed-upon bribe was to be delivered to a shop in Panchkula.

Legal action

A case has been registered against Arya, Sharma, Sandeep Ganghas (manager, Haryana Warehousing Corporation, Panipat), and Rajesh Bansal (general manager, Confed, Haryana). They have been charged under Sections 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, along with Section 120B and 384 of the IPC. Further investigations are ongoing.

This incident follows the recent arrest of IAS officer Vijay Dahiya in connection with a bribery case registered in April. Dahiya, a 2001-batch IAS officer, had been on medical leave after being accused of seeking illegal gratification to clear bills in the Haryana Skill Development Mission. Although he recently returned to duty, he remained without a posting.

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