The local VB in an application to its senior officials has sought, “necessary instructions and guidelines be issued regarding future course of action in this regard, if any.” Meanwhile the confession made by Arvind Parkash Verma, who was nabbed by the VB in September last year for accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from Baljit Singh, a resident of Baddowal village, said, “On his each working day, he used to collect on an average approximately Rs 7.5 lakhs. Out of this money 25% was shared by the office staff.”

The statement further mentions that out of remaining 75% he daily used to pay Rs 2 lakhs, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 to three senior officials of the district administration. The statement goes on to add, “The 25% that the office staff shared among themselves would be from the collections coming through them only and not the total collection of the day a huge part of which came through private agents. He ( Verma) used to keep the remaining booty with him.”

In his statement, Verma has also confessed to enjoying very close relations and dealing with the three officials saying these officials had also helped him come back to Ludhiana in May 2008. Noteworthy here is that Verma had been transferred out in August 2007 when Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal appointed Mukesh Kumar, a well known honest revenue officer, to handle this office which is known for corruption. Verma had challenged his transfer and was brought back to the same post in May 2008.

Verma has further confessed that he and his accomplices (who have been arrested by the VB) used to deal with nearly 150 cases of registration of land deeds/property sale and powers of attorney etc daily. They had fixed bribe rates per case ranging between Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000 and so on depending upon the cost of land/property. The confession also reads that, “To facilitate all this they had engaged several advocates, deeds writers, few press reporters and four private agents.”