Patna, Aug. 3: Senior IAS officer and former Patna municipal commissioner K. Senthil Kumar is likely to be arrested after the vigilance investigation bureau submitted chargesheet against him in the special vigilance court.

Kumar has been charged with causing a loss of over Rs 7 crore to the state exchequer during his stint as Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner in 2009-10.

Sources in the bureau said the investigating officer in the case submitted chargesheet against Kumar and two other officials of the PMC last Saturday (July 28) requesting the court to “issue summon against the accused persons”.

“Once the summon is issued, Kumar, who is under suspension, will have to appear before the court,” a senior officer with the bureau said.

The officer said if Kumar failed to depose before the court, the latter, in all likelihood, would issue arrest warrant against him. “We are keeping a close tab on the development in the high-profile case, which will be put on trial soon,” he said, adding that the information regarding chargesheet against the 1996 batch IAS officer had been sent to the state government for necessary action.

The officer, who did not wish to be identified, said that Kumar was away from Patna at the time of submission of the chargesheet in the court concerned. “We have been tipped-off that the IAS officer was staying somewhere else after put under suspension by the state government,” the officer added.

Sources said the general administration department was busy completing the formalities to initiate departmental proceedings against Kumar, who was put under suspension after the Centre (department of personnel and training) granted sanction of prosecution against him in June 2011.

Kumar has been charged with committing financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 7.46 crore when he was posted as PMC commissioner. He, along with other civic officials, allegedly connived with the building developers and land mafia “for personal gains”.

Besides giving nod to construction of multi-storeyed buildings without proper maps, the then commissioner awarded advertisement contract at lower rates and purchased walkie-talkies for sanitation employees throwing all prescribed norms to the wind.

The bureau had registered a case against Kumar and 14 others after a raid at PMC office on Buddha Marg in Patna in February 2010. Kumar, who was present in the office, sneaked out through the backdoor after he came to know about the operation carried out by the anti-corruption wing of the state government.

During investigation, the bureau came to know about Kumar’s immovable property in Patna, Delhi and Chennai.