New Delhi: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan ensured that his additional private secretary Arun Kumar Singh was repatriated to his parent cadre — Air India — after Singh’s residence was raided by the CBI in December, ThePrint has learnt.
Paswan, the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, wrote to Air India CMD Pradeep Singh Kharola in the first week of January, recommending the “strictest possible action” against Kumar, a civil servant who has been accused of corruption.
Within the same week, Singh was sent back to Air India.
Paswan confirmed to ThePrint that he did write to Air India seeking Kumar’s repatriation but refused to divulge any further details.
The case
Singh was booked in a case of corruption in December last year for allegedly misusing his position to extend favours in exchange for a bribe.
The CBI received a written complaint from an inspector posted with its anti-corruption branch on 27 December, accusing Singh of facilitating approval for a laboratory from the ministry’s Metrology Department in exchange for money.
Singh allegedly received the money from Ramchandra Rao Sariki and M.V. Krishnaiah, both residents of Andhra Pradesh, and the transaction was allegedly made through Monika Gill, a resident of Delhi.
The CBI was led to Singh following preliminary investigations on a complaint filed on 4 April 2019. According to the FIR, registered on 27 December, a source had informed the police that Gill had developed contacts in various ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, and was indulging in “corrupt and suspicious activities”.
The complaint alleged that Gill was in touch with those who had work stuck in ministries and charged money from them on behalf of public servants to get it done.
The complaint said that the two men — Sariki and Krishnaiah — came in contact with Gill as they had some work pending in the Legal Metrology Department that comes under the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
In 2012, Sariki had applied for permission to set up a government empanelled laboratory of weights and measures in Andhra Pradesh but was yet to get approval.
“The matter was being pursued by both Sariki and Krishnaiah,” a CBI officer said. “In this regard, Gill had assured them that she could use her contacts in the ministry to get their work done if they paid the public servants concerned and herself.”
According to the FIR, Sariki had agreed to hand over Rs 70 lakh to Gill.
“The informant also told the agency that a part of this payment was also dispatched by Sariki to Gill in the form of cash, cheque and transfer through a bank account,” the officer said.
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The trail of transactions
According to the FIR, Sariki deposited Rs 8,19,850 in Gill’s account with Axis Bank through different transactions after February 2018.
The CBI said a preliminary inquiry allegedly revealed that Gill was in touch with Singh. “It is also learnt that Gill transferred Rs 1 lakh to Singh’s account,” the FIR says.
The CBI has also established a trail of transactions in the case.
“A sum of Rs 8,19,850 was deposited with Gill, that too in three different transactions,” the officer quoted above said. “Though only Rs 1 lakh was transferred through net banking to Singh, we suspect more money was transferred through other means.
“The money did reach Singh through Gill, who was in touch with him for the GATC notification for the laboratory. This proves their connection,” he added.
The FIR says that the available evidence shows that Sariki, Gill and Singh entered into criminal conspiracy to commit an illegal act.
“The act was to influence a public servant by corrupt or illegal means to show undue favour to them and for that purpose gratification was accepted by Gill from Krishnaiah and Sariki and subsequently transferred to Arun Kumar Singh for issuance of fresh GATC notification,” the FIR says.
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This corrupt officer Arun Kumar Singh should get the sack and his pension and all other benefits terminated immediately. But these educated thieves have no shame.