Shimla:
An employee of a Punjab-based firm has been arrested in connection with a bribery case involving the director of health services in Himachal Pradesh, officials said on Sunday.
Director (Health Services) Ajay Kumar Gupta was arrested on May 20 over allegations of corruption in the purchase of health equipment.
A 43-second audio recording had surfaced online, in which Gupta purportedly asked for a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from Prithvi Singh.
Even, state BJP president Rajeev Bindal had to resign from his post on moral grounds’ as he was close to Singh, a liasioning officer of the Dera Bassi-based firm Bio Aid.
Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) Shalini Agnihotri told PTI that Prithvi Singh was arrested on Saturday evening in connection with the case.
A local court remanded him in police custody for five days till June 11.
The defence counsel had argued in the court that he had been implicated in the case as nothing was clear in the audio clip.
However, the prosecution counsel sought his custody for further investigation.
In the meantime, defence counsel Dheeraj Ahluwalia also moved his bail application which will come up for consideration on June 9.
Agnihotri said Singh was called for questioning but he evaded a direct reply when he was shown new evidence collected by them.
In reply to a question, the SP said the investigation into the matter was underway and it was not yet established whether the bribe was handed over to the now suspended director or not.
