Patna: Senior IAS officer S.M. Raju has opted for premature retirement apparently after being made accused in two cases of financial irregularities conducted in the Mahadalit Vikas Mission.

Raju, a 1991 batch officer, was put under suspension on January 12, 2017. Notices were sent to his official addresses twice to initiate departmental proceedings against him but they returned to the general administration department.

A senior official of the general department said: "The officer in question has sent an application seeking his retirement under the voluntary retirement scheme. The matter will be put before the higher officials for consideration."

Raju, however, got reprieve from Patna High Court which granted him anticipatory bail in July 2017 in the first FIR lodged with the vigilance bureau police station in Patna in connection with fraudulent disbursement of scholarships to students belonging to scheduled castes and tribes.

Raju was the secretary of the state welfare department when the alleged irregularities took place. The second FIR was lodged against Raju in October last year after he was prima facie found to be involved in the financial fraud in the disbursement of benefits under welfare schemes of the department.

Nine others, including another IAS officer Parmar Ravi Manu Bhai, were made accused in the second FIR. The irregularities were committed between 2010 and 2016. The first FIR was lodged in December 2016 related to irregularities in the disbursement of scholarship to SC/ST students worth Rs 9.75 crore.

In January this year, a Patna court rejected the anticipatory bail petition of Raju, who has been accused of causing a loss of Rs 3.28 crore to the exchequer by giving rights to two agencies for executing schemes under the Mahadalit Vikas Mission.

Under the scheme, the Mahadalits were to be trained and given certificates so they could get jobs. Raju was the director of the mission for two terms between February 2013 and February 2016, authoritative sources said.