C'garh HC orders CBI probe in 'scam' involving IAS officers

The Chhattisgarh High Court on Thursday ordered the CBI to register a First Information Report (FIR) against 12 bureaucrats including seven IAS officers in an alleged Rs 1,000 crore scam.

The officers are accused of siphoning of funds to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore from the State Resource Centre (SRC) and the Physical Referral Rehabilitation Centre (PRRC) of the State Government over a period of 10 years.

The order was passed by a division bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Parth Prateem Sahu on a petition filed by Kundan Singh Thakur and others.

The Public Interest Litigation alleged that several persons including the petitioners themselves, who are working in various government departments, were shown as employees of SRC and PRRC, formed for rehabilitation of disabled persons, and salaries were drawn in their names without their knowledge.

"The CBI shall register FIR within one week from today....The CBI shall seize the relevant original records from the concerned department, organization and offices ...within 15 days from the date of registration of FIR," the court order said.

The officials named as respondents in the petition include IAS officers Vivek Dhand, Sunil Kujur, M K Raut, B L Agrawal, Alok Shukla, M K Shroti and others.

As the respondent officers are "high-ranked", "there is apprehension that the investigation may be influenced", therefore the case should be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the judges held.