Noida: Gautam Buddh Nagar police have arrested the Fire safety officer (FSO) of Noida and a fire vendor on charges of corruption after it came to light that both the arrested persons were found to have been involved in issuing fire NOC after taking bribe and without making proper inspection to check fire safety guidelines.
According to police, the arrested persons have been identified as FSO phase-I Kuldeep Kumar and fire vendor Arvind Gupta.
Cops said that the matter came under complete scanner after an audio went viral in which both the accused were discussing the bribery money to issue NOC.
"In the audio clip, Kumar can be heard mentioning about the incomplete application of NOC to be issued to a hospital and demanded and Rs 80,000 as bribery for getting a fire NOC," said police.
Vaibhav Krishna, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Gautam Buddh Nagar said that the gang used to produce forged documents to bypass the online system of issuing fire NOC.
"Police investigated an audio clip of fire vendor and fire officer. Upon investigating the matter, police detained the two officials for questioning and the tape was found to be authentic. During interrogations it came to light that the whole nexus, which include nearly 13 fire vendors and other officials, was going on from past one and half year since the whole process of taking fire NOC became online. The gang used to produce forged documents to bypass the online system for taking NOC. They used to contact the person who needs NOC and place their own name and number instead of the applicant so that they can get info of the progress," said Krishna.
"Around seven FIR have been registered against 13 fire vendor in connection with different incidents. They have been booked under relevant sections of IPC and prevention of corruption act," added Krishna.