Ex-IAS officer held in land fraud case, sent to jail under judicial custody: ACB DGP

A former IAS officer of the Rajasathan cadre, who had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a BSP ticket, was arrested and sent to judicial custody by an anti-corruption court for his alleged role in a 2013 case of land fraud worth several crores of rupees, an ACB official said Tuesday.

Umrao Salodia, a former additional chief secretary rank officer, was taken in custody on Monday after he appeared in the special court in response to summons issued to him and other co-accused after the filing of the chargesheet by the Anti-Corruption Branch, said official.

ACB Director General of Police Alok Tripathi said the case against Salodia and five other public servants was registered in 2013 on a complaint by former District Judge Nanakram Sharma and others.

They had accused Salodia and others of being involved in a criminal conspiracy to divest them of 70 bighas of their land in Harmada area, he said.

Salodia was the state's Revenue Board chairman when the fraud took place, said Tripathi.

The chargesheet, filed in the case after investigation indicted Salodia and others of misusing their official positions to strip genuine land owners of their rights and transfer the same to another party, said the ACB DGP.

The case against Salodia and four others was registered under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to the misuse of official position and several other sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those relating to the forgery (S 465), making a false document (S 464), using a forged document as genuine (S 471) and giving false evidence (S 193), said Tripathi.

The five other former public servants, against whom the chargesheet was filed included Harishankar Bhardwaj, Arvind Kumar, Makhan Lal, Narayan and Ranveer Singh.

They had not appeared before the court on Monday following which the court issued non-bailable warrants against them for their arrest.

Salodia had taken voluntary retirement in 2015 and contested 2019 Lok Sabha polls on a BSP ticket.