Patna, Dec. 10: A special vigilance court in Patna have put a seal of approval on the vigilance bureau’s plea to confiscate disproportionate assets of former Aurangabad Motor Vehicle Inspector Raghuvansh Kuer.
Special vigilance court Judge Ramesh Chandra Mishra today directed Kuer and his wife Lalita Devi to handover their disproportionate assets worth Rs 44.99 lakh to the Patna district magistrate within 30 days.
The order was issued against former transport department official and his wife under the Bihar Special Courts Act 2009, which came into force in the state only a few weeks ago.
Public prosecutor Rajesh Kumar said a disproportionate assets case was lodged against Kuer after he was caught red-handed by a vigilance bureau team while taking a bribe from a transporter in Aurangabad on September 24, 2008.
Senior deputy superintendent of police (vigilance) P.N. Mishra was assigned to investigate the case.
During the search of his house in Patna, the sleuths of the bureau recovered Rs 1.94 lakh in cash, gold biscuits and jewellery worth Rs 14 lakh, besides house hold articles valued at Rs 4.30 lakh. The bureau, which lodged a disproportionate assets case against Keur on May 27, 2009, later submitted the chargesheet against the couple in the vigilance court.
The public prosecutor said the petition seeking confiscation of the property of Keur and his wife was submitted in the court on August 12, 2010. “Subsequently, a notice was served to the couple,” he said, adding that the court today directed them to handover their disproportionate assets worth Rs 44.99 lakh to the Patna district magistrate within a month.
Rajesh Kumar said the court would issue the order for confiscating the property of Keur and his wife if they failed to adhere to the directive of the court within the stipulated period.
Investigation carried out by the bureau revealed that Kuer joined as assistant engineer in Biscoman, Patna, in 1983. Later, his service was handed over to the transport department and he was appointed as a motor vehicle inspector.
The bureau stumbled upon Keur’s palatial building at Gandhi Nagar in Patna besides several plots of land in Patna and Samastipur districts.
The check period was from 1983 to September 24, 2008, the day he was arrested on graft charges. Keur was also holding additional charge of Gaya at the time of his arrest, a senior bureau official said.
The order of the special vigilance court has created a flutter in the administrative circles as it is the first case of confiscation of disproportionate assets of any government official in the state.
The Special Vigilance Unit (SVU), another anti-corruption wing of the Bihar government created on the pattern of the Central Bureau of Investigation, has also moved the special vigilance court to seek permission for confiscation of disproportionate assets of senior bureaucrats, including former director general of police Narain Misra and former Raj Bhasha director Dhruv Narain Choudhary.
