IAS officer, 2 kids put on notice for unlawfully grabbing sports awards

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government has issued a show cause notice to IAS officer Jagdeep Singh, who is at present special secretary in the state finance department, and his two children Gauri Sheoran and Vishwajeet Singh, in the case of taking cash awards for medals in shooting competitions in excess to what they were entitled for.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 14

The Haryana Government has issued a show cause notice to IAS officer Jagdeep Singh, who is at present special secretary in the state finance department, and his two children Gauri Sheoran and Vishwajeet Singh, in the case of taking cash awards for medals in shooting competitions in excess to what they were entitled for.

The cash awards were given during the tenure of Jagdeep Singh as sports director. “The modus operandi adopted by Shri Jagdeep Singh was to obtain the recommendation of his subordinates in the Sports Directorate without bringing to the notice of the government at any stage while obtaining approvals that certain sports events or tournaments were not eligible for cash awards under the government scheme,” said the show cause notice dated March 11.

Gauri Sheoran received Rs 51 lakh in cash awards while she was entitled to only Rs 8 lakh. Her Bhim Award application has been missing. She was allegedly shown to have scored 84 points in the Team Category but as per the approved scoring scheme, the score is just 37. She received Rs 5 lakh with Bhim Award, for which she was “not eligible”.

Vishwajeet Singh got Rs 21.5 lakh in cash awards whereas he was entitled to just Rs 4.5 lakh. His Bhim Award application has been missing but he was shown to have got 60 points whereas he was entitled to only 18. He was “not eligible” for the award but got Rs 5 lakh cash award.

Both Gauri and Vishwajeet have been issued show cause notices, asking them to return Rs 60 lakh with 12 % interest and give back Bhim Awards which were “wrongly and fraudulently conferred”.

This is a case of misappropriation of government money involving the commission of offence under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, said the show cause notice.

Took multiple awards for single performances

There are cases where more than one cash awards were claimed for a single performance, said the show cause notice. It adds, “You are liable to be debarred in future to receive cash awards or any benefit, including government jobs, under the outstanding sportspersons rules or the eligible sportspersons quota for the gross misconduct.”

Given 15 days to reply

A 15-day time is given to IAS officer Jagdeep Singh and his children Gauri and Vishwajeet for reply. Jagdeep is the son of former Haryana minister Bahadur Singh.