Gurugram: Two IAS officers were placed under immediate suspension Thursday in Haryana for their alleged role in diversion of public funds to private banks, ThePrint has learnt.
Haryana chief secretary Anurag Rastogi issued the order suspending Pardeep Kumar of the 2011 batch and Ram Kumar Singh of the 2012 batch.
Kumar was serving as director, state transport, and special secretary, transport department. Singh held the posts of special secretary, revenue & disaster management department, and additional CEO, Panchkula Metropolitan Development Authority (PMDA).
The suspension letters, issued under sub-Rule (1) of Rule 3 of the All India Services (Discipline & Appeal) Rules, 1969, do not mention any reason for the action.
ThePrint reached the chief secretary via phone calls and WhatsApp messages to ascertain the reason for the suspensions. This article will be updated as and when a response is received.
Last month, the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government wrote to the Centre recommending a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged Rs 590 crore fraud involving IDFC FIRST Bank.
Public funds from 18 Haryana government departments were allegedly diverted by bank officials in connivance with those in the administration. The alleged irregularities surfaced when a department sought to close its account and transfer funds to another bank, only to find a discrepancy between the balance on record and the actual amount available.
Subsequent inquiries revealed similar gaps in other departments.
Later, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had handed over the case to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which registered a case and arrested the then branch manager of IDFC FIRST Bank’s Chandigarh branch. The ACB also arrested a relationship manager whose wife had set up a company through which the diverted funds were allegedly channeled into property and stock market investments.
The suspensions follow a sweeping administrative reshuffle that the Haryana government carried out late Wednesday night, transferring 15 IAS officers and reassigning portfolios.
CM Nayab Saini’s Additional Principal Secretary Saket Kumar were among those IAS officers who were moved to departments considered low-priority. These officers, according to sources in the know, headed departments that had accounts in the IDFC Bank branch at the time the alleged fraud took place, and all had previously served in the panchayat department.
(Edited by Tony Rai)