Govt declines nod to investigate IAS officers in Faridabad MC scam

The Haryana Government has turned down proposals from the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) seeking permission to investigate four IAS officers in connection with the multi-crore Faridabad Municipal Corporation (MC) scam. The officers had served as MC Commissioners of Faridabad at different times in the past.

What Section 17A says

Under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, no police officer can conduct any inquiry or investigation into alleged offences by a public servant without prior approval from the government.

The rejection covers at least five FIRs registered at the ACB’s Faridabad police station between 2022 and 2023, all linked to alleged financial irregularities and inflated project costs in civic works.

In FIR No. 11, registered on March 24, 2022, permission to probe IAS officer Yash Garg has been denied. The case pertained to the alleged “irregular” enhancement of costs for interlocking paver block work in Ward 14 from Rs 53.82 lakh to Rs 1.97 crore. Contractor Satbir Singh was named as the main accused. Permission to investigate IAS officers Sonal Goel and Anita Yadav in this FIR had already been granted earlier.

Similarly, in FIR No. 13 (April 19, 2022), permission to investigate the same officer, Yash Garg, has been refused. This FIR alleged that Satbir Singh and his firms received Rs 1.26 crore for interlocking work across seven wards, all in 28 equal payments — despite no work being visible on the ground. The FIR also flagged payments of over Rs 1.2 crore each for drains, culverts and stone metalling without estimates, tenders, or completion certificates.

The Tribune spoke to Garg, but he refused to comment. Permission to investigate IAS officer Sonal Goel had earlier been allowed in FIR No. 11 and 13, but she has challenged the sanction in the High Court, which is still pending. When contacted by this reporter, Goel refused to comment.

In FIR No. 21 (June 16, 2022), relating to payments of Rs 1.76 crore to Satbir Singh without tenders, permission to investigate Sonal Goel and a fourth IAS officer, Mohd Shayin, has been denied. When contacted by The Tribune, Shayin refused to comment.

In FIR No. 23 (July 15, 2022), sanction was refused against all four officers — Shayin, Goel, Yadav and Garg. The case detailed a series of extraordinary cost escalations, with estimates for interlocking tiles in Wards 14 and F-block shooting up from under Rs 25 lakh to nearly Rs 2 crore in just two days in October 2018.

The most recent FIR (September 5, 2023) was the only one to directly name IAS officer Anita Yadav, along with other officials and the contractor. It alleged manipulation of work orders and fake dispatch numbers in a road divider project where costs ballooned from Rs 27.52 lakh to Rs 4.94 crore. Permission to probe Shayin, Garg and Goel has been denied.

Reacting to the decision, Anita Yadav told The Tribune, that “I have been singled out, whereas Shayin, Garg and Goel were similarly placed. I will approach the High Court against this pick and choose.”

The allegations across the FIRs range from splitting large works into smaller ones to bypass tendering norms, to fake work orders and cost escalations in crores. However, without sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the ACB cannot proceed against serving or retired IAS officers.