Missing file: Official transferred, Chaturvedi may move court

A Haryana forest department official who filed a police complaint over missing documents related to whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi has been transferred, amid a move to seek a CBI probe into the matter.

Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service official, is contemplating moving the Punjab and Haryana High Court for a CBI investigation over the file that went missing from the Chief Minister's Office, his counsel said.

His counsel said the Magsaysay award winner will move court if the Haryana government itself does not recommend handing over the case of the missing file to the Central Bureau of Investigation within a month.

The file was reported missing on April 25 and a superintendent in the forest department filed a police complaint on May 21.

Yesterday, after news reports on the missing file appeared, superintendent Rajender Singh was transferred to the state's Animal Husbandry department, officials said.

The missing file reportedly contains notings made during the tenure of the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.

They relate to Haryana's plea against the recommendation of a central government panel to quash a departmental charge sheet against Chaturvedi.

The notings contained the opinion of the CMO and senior state government officials, Chaturvedi's counsel claimed.

He said the disappearance of such sensitive documents in a mysterious manner was a very serious matter.

During his Haryana tenure from 2005 to 2010, Chaturvedi claimed to have unearthed a multi-crore scam in the state's forestry programme.

The Hooda government launched departmental proceedings against him, leading to the filing of a charge sheet in 2007.

The official appealed to the President under the All India Services Rules and a two-member two-member inquiry committee was set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in 2010.

It was tasked to look into the alleged irregularities unearthed by Chaturvedi, and the charge sheet against him.

The MoEF quashed the charge sheet as recommended by the panel, which also indicted the then chief minister.

The Haryana government had, however, contended that the ministry illegally constituted the committee. It filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court four years back, seeking the squashing of the committee's report.

A Right to Information application by Chaturvedi in March revealed that the file containing the documents related to his case was not "traceable".

Chaturvedi later wrote to the current Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, asking him to hand over the entire matter to the CBI for a probe.

His counsel today said they will press for registration of an FIR under IPC sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) as the documents were government property and in custody of the CMO.