Rajasthan bats for retd IAS officer, now advisor to cricket physique led by CM son

FOUR YEARS after chargesheets have been filed towards three bureaucrats, together with an IAS officer — who’s now retired and is an advisor to the Rajasthan Cricket Association led by Vaibhav Gehlot, son of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot — for corruption in an alleged land rip-off, the state authorities has moved an software on the trial stage to withdraw the case towards them at a particular court docket arrange for listening to circumstances below the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Two chargesheets towards the three officers — GS Sandhu, IAS (now retired), Nishkam Diwakar (now retired, Rajasthan Administrative Service) and Onkar Mal Saini (serving RAS officer) — have been filed in 2015 and 2016 when the BJP was in energy within the state.
The chargesheet, filed on July 8, 2016, by the Anti Corruption Bureau then, mentioned Sandhu, who was Principal Secretary within the Urban Development and Housing (UDH) Department in 2010-11, Diwakar, then Deputy Secretary, UDH, and Saini, then Deputy Commissioner, Jaipur Development Authority, have been a part of a “criminal conspiracy” in allotting land belonging to a housing society to a non-public development firm.
Sandhu and Saini have been charged below sections 409, 420 and 120B of the IPC together with related sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, within the 2016 chargesheet. Diwakar too was chargesheeted i. The three have been arrested, however have been subsequently granted bail.
In its January 19, 2021, software earlier than the particular court docket, the state authorities has really useful that the case towards Sandhu and the 2 others be withdrawn. Six months in the past, in July 2019, Sandhu and Diwakar had made a illustration to the federal government after the Congress returned to energy. The UDH division arrange a committee which really useful the withdrawal of the case.
Sandhu didn’t reply to calls and messages.
Incidentally, Shanti Dhariwal, UDH Minister in Gehlot’s Cabinet, was additionally referred to as for questioning in the identical case by the ACB in 2015. When requested if a committee below his ministry recommending a clear to the three bureaucrats amounted to battle of curiosity, he mentioned there was no case of battle of curiosity.
“The inquiry was conducted by the UDH committee as well as a committee of the home department and it was found there is no case. The three bureaucrats were framed by the then BJP government under political vendetta because they refused to accept sifarish (recommendations) made by BJP leaders. My name was never in the FIR or anywhere in the case. The ACB had just called me, but it said there was nothing against me. There were no demands for bribes, and the government did not incur any loss. There is no case against the bureaucrats. On the contrary, the government has benefitted Rs 54 lakh,” Dhariwal advised The Indian Express.
When contacted, Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma, Additional Advocate General, advised The Indian Express that it was below the ability of the state authorities to withdraw circumstances together with these filed below political vendetta at any stage of the trial. “In criminal cases, the state is the party,” he mentioned.
In the withdrawal software, the state authorities has identified that not one of the three bureaucrats have been named within the authentic grievance, preliminary enquiry, or the FIR. Further, it mentioned no particular individual has been wrongly benefited or harmed. The authorities additionally now mentioned the land in query was not authorities land and its established order had not been modified. It additionally famous that the ACB had filed the chargesheet towards Sandhu, a public servant, with out taking prosecution sanction as required below part 197 CrPC.
The allotment of land was made in June 2011 and was cancelled in May 2013 after the approval of the then UDH minister. Dhariwal was the UDH minister at the moment as properly.
“In the instant case, not only there is a paucity of evidence but if the final is allowed to continue, it will affect the morale of similarly situated officers and employees if they have to work in constant fear of being hauled up by the ACB even for no fault of theirs,” mentioned the appliance, requesting the court docket to discharge the three officers since prices haven’t but been framed towards them.
The software additionally identified ‘stark contradictions’ between the 2 chargesheets of the ACB (in the course of the BJP regime) and a report which the ACB submitted on June 6, 2019, after the Congress authorities got here to energy.