Chandigarh, Oct 29 (IANS): The Punjab Vigilance Bureau, during its drive against corruption in the state, on Tuesday arrested Inspector Gurinder Singh, in charge of the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) in Patiala red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh.

Disclosing this here, an official spokesperson for the Vigilance Bureau said the accused was arrested on the complaint of Pooja, a resident of Rohti Pul village in Nabha tehsil in Patiala district.

He said the complainant had approached the Vigilance Bureau and alleged that the accused Inspector was threatening her father with implicating him in a false NDPS case if he failed to give him a bribe of Rs 3 lakh but the 'deal' was stuck at Rs 1.50 lakh.

The accused had received Rs 50,000 as the first installment of bribe money on Sunday.

The spokesperson further said after a preliminary inquiry of this complaint, a Vigilance Bureau team laid a trap during which the police personnel was arrested while he was accepting a bribe of Rs 1,00,000 from the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses.

In this regard, a case has been registered against the accused under prevention of corruption act at the Vigilance Bureau police station, Patiala range. The accused would be produced in a court on Wednesday and further investigation into this case was under process, he added.

The state government on August 29 renamed the Special Task Force (STF), the apex state-level drug law enforcement unit, as Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF), equipping it with additional manpower, resources and technology to combat drugs menace.

Inaugurating the new office of the ANTF in Mohali, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann launched an Anti-drug Helpline and WhatsApp Chatbot (9779100200).

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said the existing manpower of the ANTF is being doubled from the present 400 to 861, adding that these new posts for ANTF will be created as part of the 10,000 new posts coming up for the police department.