Kashmir Impulse Desk

Jammu, July 17

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a public works engineer in J&K for allegedly accepting a bribe to process compensation for damage caused during the construction of a government-funded rural road project, officials said on Friday.

The CBI said it arrested Liaqat Javed Sheikh Gojar, an assistant engineer with the Public Works Department (PWD) working on projects under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), after allegedly catching him accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000 in a trap operation.

According to the CBI, the case was registered on July 16 following a complaint from a resident whose house was allegedly damaged during the construction of the Thathri-Kathawa road in Doda district under the PMGSY programme.

The complainant alleged that he was entitled to compensation of about Rs 10 lakh for the damage, but that the engineer demanded Rs 50,000 to process and release the payment. Following negotiations, the official allegedly agreed to accept Rs 30,000, the agency said.

The CBI said it laid a trap after verifying the complaint and arrested the engineer while he was allegedly demanding and accepting the agreed amount.

The accused was taken into custody following the operation, while further investigation into the case is continuing, the agency said.

It did not disclose whether searches had been conducted or whether additional officials were under scrutiny.

The arrest is the latest in a series of anti-corruption operations carried out by the CBI and other investigative agencies targeting public officials accused of demanding illegal gratification for processing government benefits and public works-related payments.

The PMGSY, launched by the Government of India in 2000, is one of the country’s flagship rural infrastructure programmes, aimed at providing all-weather road connectivity to unconnected villages.

Given the scale of the programme and the volume of public expenditure involved, compensation claims arising from land acquisition and construction-related damage are subject to administrative scrutiny, making transparency in their processing a recurring focus of anti-corruption investigations.