Fake lady officer scandal rocks LBS academy

Ruby Chaudhry was staying in the prestigious institute for 6 months posing as a trainee IAS officer

The prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons these days.

The Academy's Deputy Director Saurbh Jain, an Indian Administrative Service officer, has been accused of allowing a young woman, Ruby Chaudhry, from Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, to stay on the premises, posing as a probationer, for over six months.

The Uttarakhand police has ordered a high-level probe.

The probe came after the Academy lodged a first information report (FIR) in a Mussoorie police station stating a security breach on the premises where Chaudhry had stayed for over six months. There are also allegations that Jain, an IAS officer of 2002 Kerala Cadre, had provided her a fake identity card.

"A probe has been initiated to find out various angles in the whole episode at the LBS Academy," said Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Law and Order Anil Raturi.

Initial investigations revealed that Chaudhry had accused Jain of taking a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from her in three installments to issue her the ID card for the probationer on the basis of which she stayed there for over six months.

Chaudhry said that she had been staying at the institute as she had been assured the job of a librarian there in exchange for money by the officer.

A special investigation team headed by Shahjehan Ansari has been constituted to probe the matter and a clearer picture would emerge only after two-three days.

The woman who has been booked under sections 420/467/468/471 of the IPC has been taken into custody and is being interrogated.  

Jain is posted in the Academy under inter-cadre transfer in Uttarakhand for the past few years during which he served in various capacities including District Magistrate of Uttarakashi and additional secretary in the power department.  During his brief stint in the power department, the hydropower scandal had surfaced where the government had allegedly allotted small hydropower projects to some liquor companies of late Ponti Chadha.        

The Academy started grabbing the headlines on Wednesday when the news about the stay of the woman there on the basis of a fake ID card came to light with the Academy lodging an FIR at Mussoorie police station.   

According to the FIR, the woman arrived at the academy on September 20 introducing herself as Ruby Chaudhry, a trainee IAS officer and stayed there for a little over six months before mysteriously disappearing on March 27.

It is also being investigated what was the purpose of her stay at the academy which is among the top targets of terrorists.

Some documents have also been seized from the room where she had stayed, top police officials said.