Court summons IAS officer as accused in graft case

Senior IAS officer Sanjay Pratap Singh and his personal assistant have been summoned as accused by a special court here for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 2.2 lakh.

Special Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by CBI against Singh, a 1984-batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre, and his PA Ramesh Kumar, both of whom are out on bail, and said there is prima facie evidence to proceed against them.

"I have gone through the charge sheet as well as documents and statements of witnesses annexed with the same. On examining the material on record, I find that there is prima facie evidence against both accused to proceed further and therefore I take cognisance for the offences punishable under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC read with sections 7 (demanding and accepting illegal gratification), 13 (2) read with Section 13(1)(d) (criminal misconduct by public servant) of Prevention of Corruption Act and substantive offences thereof against accused Sanjay Pratap Singh and Ramesh Kumar," the judge said.
 

Both the accused, who were present in the court, were apprised of the order and the judge listed the matter for February 20 for supplying copies of charge sheet and other documents to them.

The court also allowed CBI's plea to place on record the order of sanction for prosecution of Singh, who was holding the post of Principal Secretary in Department of SC, ST and Minorities.

Both the accused were arrested by CBI on December 8, 2015, and later granted bail by the court.

CBI's investigating officer had earlier told the court that the accused had demanded a bribe of Rs 2.2 lakh from the complainant and Singh had instructed that money be delivered to his PA. CBI has alleged that out of Rs 2.2 lakh, Singh's PA pocketed Rs 20,000.

According to CBI, Singh had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 2.2 lakh from the owner of a firm, which supplied security guards and manpower, to clear pending bills.

It had told the court that gold worth over Rs 80 lakh was recovered from one of the bank lockers of the bureaucrat, besides fixed deposit receipts worth crores of rupees.

The accused were arrested after the complainant had approached Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's office.