Rajasthan officials held with Rs 10.67 lakh in unaccounted cash

Kota, May 4

Sleuths of the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) here recovered Rs 10.67 lakh in unaccounted cash from two officials posted with the Water Resources Department in Atru of Baran district in Rajasthan, police said on Saturday.

The amount was recovered during a checking on the Baran-Kota highway near Nohar on Thursday night, police said.

“The two officials have not been arrested or booked for corruption as the investigation is under way,” the police maintained. 

According to ASP (ACB) Chandrasheel Thakur, they had got a tip-off that assistant engineer Mohan Lal Sharma had collected a huge amount as commission from contractors and was returning to Kota by a government vehicle.

“The ACB sleuths stopped the government vehicle, in which Sharma and executive engineer Satyendra Kumar Pareek were travelling along with another official of the department,” the officer said.

During checking of the vehicle, a bag belonging to Sharma and containing Rs 10 lakh in cash was recovered, the officer said, adding that Sharma failed to give a satisfactory reply about the amount.

“Similarly, Rs 66,940 was recovered from executive engineer Pareek, who, too, failed to give a satisfactory reply. They were brought to the ACB office for questioning,” he said.

Sharma, however, contended that the amount recovered from him had been borrowed from a contractor from Baran, but when the contractor was contacted, he refused to have lent the amount to Sharma, the police said.

“During a search operation at Sharma’s residence in Kota, a large number of documents pertaining to several plots and bank accounts were recovered,” ASP Thakur said.

Investigation into the case was under way and the officials would be arrested for corruption once it was completed, he said. PTI