A former top official with the Shanghai Planning, Land and Resources Administration Bureau has been charged with bribery, local prosecutors said yesterday.

Hu Jun. [ File photo/ Sohu.com?]

Hu Jun, 46, the bureau's former deputy director, is said to have accepted huge sums from companies and individuals before and after he took the post in 2008. The amount was not revealed.

Prosecutors said Hu held the posts of deputy director, Party committee secretary and director of the urban planning administration of Jing'an District between 1997 and 2003. He was deputy chief and a Party committee member of Chongming County from 2003 to 2008.

Previous media reports quoted insiders as alleging that Hu committed crimes when he headed Jing'an District's urban planning administration.

In February, news outlets speculated that Hu had fallen in a corruption scandal, shortly after the Shanghai Planning and Land Resources Administration Bureau dropped his name from its list of top officials without giving any explanation.

Shanghai disciplinary authorities said they began investigating Hu's activities after receiving a tip-off.

The authorities said Hu had been expelled from the Party and removed from his post for "serious violation of discipline," including "taking bribes in return for illegal favors he has done others by abusing his power."

Hu was transferred to prosecutors for an investigation into corruption and was arrested on March 15.

A native of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, Hu graduated from Nanjing University with a degree in urban planning and worked in a postdoctoral center in the Construction and Urban Planning College of Shanghai's Tongji University.

He was promoted to associate professor for his outstanding academic achievement when he was 28.

In April, Chen Meng, former deputy chief of the city's Putuo District, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes exceeding 15.47 million yuan (US$2.44 million).