18 gazetted officers, 126 non-gazetted officers arrested
43 police personnel, 20 revenue deptt. officials apprehended
Chandigarh, 11 January 2026 :
Aiming to weed out corruption from the society, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) adopted a multi-facet approach to corner the bribe seekers and to generate awareness among the public with a resolute stand to curb this social malady. During the period the VB has apprehended 187 persons red handed taking bribes in different cases. This reflects Punjab Government actions speak louder than words.
Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson of Vigilance Bureau said the VB has been able to nab 144 officials of different departments and 43 private persons while accepting bribes in 127 trap cases during the year 2025. Adopting a zero tolerance policy towards all forms of corruption, the Bureau had nabbed 18 gazetted officers (GOs) and 126 non-gazetted officials (NGOs) from January 1 to December 31, 2025.
He revealed that during the year, apart from other departments, 43 personnel of Punjab Police, 20 of Revenue Department, 21 of Power, 14 of Panchayats and Rural Development, 9 of Transport department, 8 of Local Bodies department, 5 of Forest department, 5 of Health department, 3 of Mandi Board were nabbed red handed while taking bribes in separate cases. In addition to this, the VB has apprehended two employees each of Education, Co-operation, Food & Civil Supplies, Personnel department in graft cases.
Giving more details about the performance of the Bureau he added that the VB had registered 113 criminal cases against the accused in which include 17 GOs, 98 NGOs and 118 private persons. Apart from this, 38 Vigilance Enquiries had also been registered to probe corruption complaints against 17 GOs, 20 NGOs and 15 private persons. Besides, 10 cases of disproportionate assets were also registered against 4 GOs, 5 NGOs and 2 private persons.
In addition, 6 Non Gazetted Officer has been dismissed from their services by their respective administrative departments due to conviction by the competent courts while deciding the VB cases. He further revealed that the Bureau had been able to conclude 65 Vigilance Enquiries during the year.
Sharing details, he said various competent courts have sentenced 63 accused in 34 cases filed and contested by the Bureau under prevention of corruption act which includes 3 GOs, 38 NGOs and 22 private persons and awarded imprisonments ranging from one year to five years. The courts have also imposed fines varying from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 2,01,000 in these cases which amount to a total sum of Rs. 18,71,000, he added.
The VB has effectively implemented awareness campaigns during Vigilance Awareness Week in which seminars and public meetings were held in urban as well as in rural areas to weed out corruption from the society and integrity pledges was also administered to all the officers and employees of the bureau,” he added. VB received 6158 complaints in which 363 were received via the Anti-Corruption helpline number during the last year.
He further informed that prominent persons have been booked/arrested in corruption cases during the last year included former Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, MLA Raman Arora, IPS officer Harcharan Singh Bhullar, Assistant Commissioner CGST Ravinder Kumar Sharma from Jalandhar, PCS officer Vikramjeet Singh Panthey from Batala, PCS officer Gurbeer Singh Kohli from Ludhiana, PCS officer Ravinder Kumar Bansal from SBS Nagar, General Manager Punsup Ajitpal Singh Saini, Deputy Chief Engineer of PSPCL Harminder Singh, Sub- Registrar Jagtar Singh, Tehsildar Ram Lal, S.M.O Dr. Sumit Singh, DSP Gursher Singh and Dr. Amit Singla Civil Hospital Sunam.
In addition this, Parmjeet Singh, Dhanvant Singh, Kulwant Singh, Lakhbeer Singh and Hardiyal Singh all BDPOs, posted at Fazilka, SAS Nagar, Amritsar and Kapurthala respectively, Amarjeet Singh Forest Range officer Hoshiarpur, Narinderpal Singh Executive Engineer, Assistant Town Planner Sukhdev Visisht, ATP Jaspal Singh, ATP Gurpreet Singh, ATP Raj Kumar, ATP Charanjeet Singh posted at Municipal Corporation Jalandhar, MC Patiala, MC Bathinda, MC Phagwara, MC Gurdaspur were also arrested/booked during the last year.
