By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The Uttarakhand Vigilance Department on Friday arrested a Project Officer of the state-run Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA) in Bageshwar district for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹40,000 from a complainant.
Dhirendra Patwal was caught by a Vigilance trap team while allegedly receiving the bribe for clearing pending files related to solar power projects, official sources said.
The Vigilance Department said the complainant had alleged that Patwal had been demanding bribes of ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 per file for issuing the Joint Inspection Report (JIR), a mandatory requirement for several solar plant projects that had been pending for a considerable period.
The complainant informed the authorities that four of his files were awaiting approval and that Patwal had demanded a total of ₹40,000 to process them.
Following the complaint, the Vigilance Department carried out a preliminary verification, which found the allegations to be prima facie genuine. Acting on the findings, Vigilance officials constituted a trap team to catch the accused in the act. Patwal was arrested when he was allegedly accepting the ₹40,000 bribe from the complainant.
Officials said Dhirendra Patwal is a resident of Ramnagar in Nainital district and was currently posted as Project Officer with UREDA in Bageshwar.
The Vigilance Department reiterated its commitment to taking strict action against corruption in government offices and urged citizens to report any instances of bribery or misuse of official position.