Chandigarh, June 21 (IANS) The Punjab vigilance arrested Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Sanjay Popli and his secretary on corruption charges.
As per the FIR, Popli allegedly sought one per cent commission from a contractor of a Rs 7 crore sewerage project in the Nawanshahr town during the previous Congress regime.
The contractor paid Rs 3.5 lakh through Sanjeev Vats, a Superintendent-level official posted as secretary to the officer, who was heading the Water Supply and Sewerage Board, on January 12.
The officials said Popli was seeking the remaining Rs 3.5 lakh from the contractor, who recorded his phone calls and complained on the anti-corruption helpline set up by the present Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
The officer was arrested from his house in Chandigarh on Monday evening.
Asthana, a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre officer, had headed the Special Investigation Team of the CBI after Mallya escaped from India in 2016 and keenly pursued his extradition from the United Kingdom.
India's heaviest and next generation communication satellite with high throughput GSAT-11 was put into orbit by Ariane-5 rocket of Arianespace from French Guiana on Wednesday, the Indian space agency and Arianespace said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the Congress of making the "mistake" of letting Kartarpur Sahib - the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev - go to Pakistan during partition due to its "scramble for power" post-independence.
The Punjab cabinet on Monday passed a special resolution to set up a Dera Baba Nanak Development Authority to develop and beautify the area in and around Dera Baba Nanak town ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev.
Having drawn flak from various quarters for its decision to remove noted environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal as member of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), the state government on Saturday ordered his re-nomination.
