GUWAHATI: A former irrigation department official from Rangia, Assam has been arrested over alleged corruption charges. Pulen Lahkar was taken into custody by the Rangia police over financial irregularities in an irrigation related scheme in 2008-09.
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Lahkar was a former Sub Divisional Officer (SDO), who worked as an executive engineer. He was involved in a scheme worth Rs 3.5 crores. However, certain discrepancies regarding the scheme were revealed after an RTI was filed by a local resident from Bongaon, Rangia in Assam named Purnanda Kalita.
The justification given by the former SDO was that floods caused damage to the irrigation outlets. Kalita who filed an RTI regarding the matter disputed the claim.
Following this, the matter was taken up by the Chief Minister's (CM) Vigilance which later forwarded the case to Rangia police. The Rangia police has estimated discrepancies by Lahkar to the tune of Rs 3,25,560.
Meanwhile, Pulen Lahkar has indicated the issue as a conspiracy against him. Lahkar has recently joined a new political party.
"This is not a political conspiracy because I did the RTI in 2016 when the party in contention was not even there," said Purnanda Kalita.
