Gujarat IAS officer facing bigamy, cheating charges suspended

The Gujarat government on Wednesday suspended senior IAS officer Gaurav Dahiya in connection with allegations of bigamy and cheating levelled against him by a Delhi-based woman.

Dahiya will face disciplinary action in connection the charges against him, the government said in a statement.

Hours after his suspension, Dahiya moved the Gujarat High Court, seeking its direction to the state police not to interfere in the case, which he said, falls under the jurisdiction of the Delhi police.

"Based on the findings of the probe committee's report, the state government has suspended Gaurav Dahiya today," Chief Secretary J N Singh said.

He, however, did not elaborate on the probe panel's report, which was submitted to the state government recently.

"Dahiya has been put under suspension in the wake of the ongoing probe against him. He will also face disciplinary action," the statement said.

Last month, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had formed an inquiry committee, headed by principal secretary Sunaina Tomar, to probe the Delhi-based woman's allegations of bigamy and cheating against the 2010-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer.

Dahiya appeared before the panel twice and defended himself, saying he was "falsely" framed by the woman.

The Gandhinagar police were also conducting a separate inquiry after receiving an application from the woman.

Though Dahiya was asked to appear before the police, he is yet to record his statement.

Notably, Dahiya earlier submitted an application to the police against the woman, who claimed he tied the knot with her in February 2018 while keeping her in the dark about his first marriage and wife.

"He lied to me that he will soon divorce his wife. We got married in February 2018 in Tirupati. I have photographs and videos of our wedding. When I insisted to get our marriage registered, he started torturing me and even blackmailed me by showing some intimate photos," she alleged in her application.

In his application, Dahiya had claimed the woman was lying.

He alleged the woman "honey-trapped" him and started blackmailing him. He also claimed the woman morphed the photos of their alleged wedding to extract money from him.

The bureaucrat told the police that though both of them arrived at a compromise earlier, she started harassing him with false claims of marriage.

Dahiya was transferred to the General Administration Department as a joint secretary on July 22 after the police received the complaint against him.

Before that, he was director of the National Rural Health Mission in Gujarat.

Meanwhile, in his petition filed in the HC on Wednesday through his lawyer Ashish Dagli, Dahiya alleged the Gandhinagar police were conducting an inquiry against him in the case without having any jurisdiction.

He sought the courts direction to the police not to interfere in the case.

The IAS officer said the matter is under the jurisdiction of the Delhi police and so far no FIR has been filed against him.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing in a few days.