Suspended Haryana cadre IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar, who has been convicted in the JBT scam, was arrested by Delhi Police's Crime Branch for allegedly conspiring to get his businessman friend killed in order to implicate former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala's son.
Kumar, who was out on parole, was arrested yesterday. His aide Shaukat Pasha, who is serving life sentence in a murder case and lodged in Tihar jail, was also arrested in connection with the conspiracy to kill Delhi-based businessman Tikka Hassan Mustafa.
Two sharp-shooters of Pasha's gang, identified as Taufiq and Mannan alias Monu alias Murtaza, were arrested too and one country-made pistol and four live cartridges seized from them.
Kumar, a 1985-batch IAS officer, along with former Chief Minister Chautala, his MLA son Ajay Chautala and 53 others, had been convicted by a Delhi court for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior teachers.
He was the director of Primary Education when the scam took place and the court had relied on his testimony for the verdict. He was initially a whistleblower in the case but in the CBI probe that followed he was also found to be involved in the scam. As he had accumulated huge wealth, a separate DA Case was registered against him and he was charge-sheeted.
"Sanjiv Kumar has been arrested for criminal conspiracy to murder a Delhi-based businessman, who is his friend and close associate. The plan was hatched while in Tihar Jail when Sanjiv was in judicial custody along with the Chautalas," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.
He wanted to eliminate his close friend with whom he had developed some property disputes and also wanted to get himself injured and get bail, the official said.
"And most importantly he wanted to blame the Chautalas for this attack on himself and his friend," he added.
Kumar had befriended Pasha, a dreaded gangster, during his stay in Tihar. On behest of Kumar, Pasha hired contract killers identified as Asad Pasha (nephew of Shaukat Pasha), Aftab, Mannan, Taufiq and Irshad to execute the plan.
Kumar had got bail last year on medical grounds. He was admitted to Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBA&S) after he complained of suicidal tendency. An NBW was issued against him when the High Court upheld his conviction on March 5. On April 22, he got relief for 12 months from Supreme Court again on health grounds.
