Rs 1-cr graft case: IAS officer suspended

Tribune News Service

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, May 25

IAS officer Dharmender Singh, arrested by the Faridabad police last week for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 crore, has been suspended by the government.

Sources said the orders had been issued in keeping with the rules which stated that an officer had to be placed under suspension if he was in custody for over 48 hours.

He was arrested in a case of ‘inflating’ the tender value for the under-construction MC building in Sonepat while he was posted as Municipal Commissioner there.

He was posted as Resident Commissioner at Haryana Bhavan, Delhi, and was apprehended in a joint operation by a SIT and the Faridabad Police. In June 2022, a case was registered at a Faridabad police station in this regard by a Delhi resident, who had approached the police after he failed to get a contract.

The officer has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 420, 120B and 406 of the IPC.

Sources said the officer’s family was likely to submit a representation to the Chief Secretary to underline the “high-handed approach” of the police in arresting him without taking the prior permission of the government. They said he was “picked up” without any prior notice or preliminary probe into the case. “There are certain procedures that have to be followed while proceeding against an officer. These were given a go-by,” an IAS officer alleged.

#faridabad #sonepat