Anti-Corruption Bureau arrests two senior mining officials

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The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday arrested two senior officials of the mining department, along with three others, from Udaipur on alleged corruption charges.

Additional Director of the mining department of Udaipur, Pankaj Gehlot, and senior mining engineer, P.R. Ameta, were detained for their alleged involvement in Rs.2.5 crore bribery scam.

Acting on a tip-off regarding corruption in mining department, the ACB conducted joint operation at Udaipur and Bhilwara to nab the culprits. The team recovered a total of Rs. 3.85 crore in cash.

The main accused Gehlot was allegedly taking bribes for mining allocation. Sher Khan, the biggest cement businessman in the state was paying bribe to restart at least six mines in Chittorgarh district that were closed. Gehlot had demanded Rs. 20 crores for the work and Rs. 2.5 crore was the first installment.

The team recovered the amount from Khan's Chartered Accountant, Shyam Sunder Singhvi's house while Rs. 1.25 crores were recovered from a mining middleman Sanjay Sethi's house.

"In this case, five main accused Sanjay Sethi, Rashid Khan, Shyam Singh, Pushkar Raj Ameta and Additional Director (Mines), Udaipur, Pankaj Gehlot have been arrested. The money recovered amounted to Rs. 3.80 crore and some four lakh rupees were also recovered, so the total amount is Rs. 3.85 crore," said Director General of ACB, Navdeep Singh in state capital, Jaipur.

Gehlot was arrested from his office in Udaipur. The ACB team was searching for records at Gehlot's residence.

Sethi, Singhvi, Ameta and Rashid Khan (Sher Khan's agent) were arrested for facilitating the transaction.

State Interior Minister, Gulab Chandra Kataria, congratulated the ACB for their achievement.