Police arrest panchayat secretary on charges of corruption

The vigilance department on Tuesday arrested a panchayat secretary on graft charge from Bihar's West Champaran district, an official said.

Acting on a complaint, a vigilance team headed by deputy superintendent of police Md Jamiruddin laid a trap and caught the panchayat secretary, Ramnath Mahto red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 from the complainant Rameshwar Paswan, Director General of Police (DGP), Vigilance, P.K Thakur said.

Mahto, the secretary of Jamunia panchayat under Nautan block, had demanded bribe for facilitating allotment of a house to Paswan under Indira Awas Yojana(IAY), he said.

An additional amount of Rs 21,570 was also recovered from the possession of the panchayat secretary, Thakur said.