Patiala, July 5
The local court on Friday sentenced nine government officials, some of them now retired, to a year’s imprisonment for paying a bribe to the then Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) Chairman Ravi Sidhu for making it to the PCS (Executive).

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau had in its 2002 FIR said that at least 12 officers had paid hefty bribes, ranging from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 45 lakh, through middlemen for selection in the PCS cadre. A case was registered after Sidhu was arrested. Two middlemen in the case turned witnesses in the case. The VB had registered five cases against different categories of PCS candidates.