Rajasthan ACB raids IAS officer home, office

The Anti-Corruption Bureau of Rajasthan conducted raids at the residence and office of IAS officer Neeraj K. Pawan and three other officers on a complaint of “irregularities” in tendering process in NRHM. The ACB has also arrested a person who acted as a middleman for the IAS officer.

Mr Pawan, an IAS officer of 2003 batch, is currently posted as commissioner in the agriculture department. Earlier, there were allegations against him of irregularities in purchase of computers from MNREGA budget when he was district collector.

The others who are under the radar of the ACB are additional director Anil Agarwal, accounts officer Deepa Gupta and store keeper Joyoji Varghese at the NRHM office when Mr Pawan was posted there, he said. The ACB has also arrested middleman Ajit Soni who was said to be a member of the media cell of the ruling BJP although the executive had been dissolved sometimes ago.

The matter is related to his stint in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) where he was additional mission director prior to his current posting. Apart from “irregularities” in tender process, he allegedly favoured his friends and relatives in securing tenders of medicines.

“The raid is going on at 15 premises that includes home and offices of the officers,” IG, ACB, Dinesh M.N. said. He said there was a complaint of irregularities in the process of tendering against Mr Pawan when he was additional director for National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). The IAS officer was interrogated for more than six hours by the ACB sleuths.

Apart from his residence and office raids have been conducted on his farm house and in districts where Pawan was posted as collector. His residence in NRI colony too is said to be a guest house of Rajasthan Housing Board (RHB), which he had been allotted as commissioner of the RHB but he has not vacated it even after leaving the RHB four years ago. The ACB has recovered several bottles of foreign liquor from Pawan’s residence and the excise department too is likely to register a case against him. He is third IAS officer in recent times to fall into ACB net. Last week, the ACB arrested retired IAS officer G S Sandhu in connection with a land deal while in September last year principal secretary of mining department Ashok Singhvi was arrested in connection with bribery racket in the department. He is now out on the bail.