Forest officer arrested for accepting bribe of Rs 50,000 through Google Pay

Bilaspur (HP), Dec 30 (PTI) A vigilance department team has arrested a forest department officer for accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 through Google Pay from a contractor in the Bilaspur district, officials said on Tuesday.

The accused officer, identified as Sameer Muhammad, who was posted as a forest beat officer in Bilapsur, allegedly demanded Rs 3 lakh from a contractor for marking his Khair trees.

After negotiations, the deal was finalised at Rs 1 lakh, officials said. The contractor transferred Rs 50,000 to the officer's bank account via Google Pay as the initial installment.

Following this, the contractor informed the vigilance department about the matter.

Upon receiving the information, the vigilance team laid a trap and, after gathering concrete evidence of the digital transaction, arrested the accused officer, according to officials.

The vigilance department is currently collecting further evidence against the accused, officials added. PTI COR BPL PRK PRK