A senior IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh filed a complaint at the MP Nagar police station here today demanding registration of an FIR against Income Tax (IT) Department officials for allegedly carrying out raids against him with malafide intentions.
The officer Rajesh Rajora moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court challenging the grounds on which raids were carried out at his residence, after which a two-judge bench comprising Acting Chief Justice K K Lahoti and Justice M A Siddiqui quashed the Income Tax department's action.
While quashing the Income Tax Department's action against Rajora, the MP High Court said "because of a dispute in respect of allotment of a house, the respondents (Income Tax officials) could get an opportunity to issue a warrant of authorisation. Resultantly, search in the premises of petitioners was conducted".
In his capacity as the then Home Secretary of Madhya Pradesh, Rajora had rejected the application of then Income Tax Director General (Investigations) S S Rana for allotment of a state government house on the grounds of ineligibility.
Later, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan allotted the house to Rana out of his discretionary quota, after which Rajora also issued allotment orders on May 20, 2008.
However, the IT officials carried out raids against him on May 30, on the grounds of suspicion, which Rajora challenged.
In its ruling, the Madhya Pradesh High Court said "it appears that because of the allotment of a house to respondent number 4 (Rana), there was some annoyance of the authorities and as soon as on May 20, 2008, the house was allotted by the Chief Minister, on May 28, 2008, a warrant of authorisation was issued and on May 30, 2008, a search was conducted".
