Patna: Controversies have never been alien to Vivek Kumar, a 2007 batch IPS officer, who is under the scanner of the special vigilance unit (SVU) for allegedly amassing property disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Vigilance personnel carried out simultaneous raids at the office and residential premises of Vivek, who holds a B.Tech degree from IIT Rourkee, and his close relatives at Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on Monday and detected unaccounted wealth to the tune of Rs 1.06 crore.

Vivek, a native of Saharanpur, had hogged the limelight when he was posted as superintendent of police of Sitamarhi in 2012. A college girl, Kanchan Bala, who was being harassed, had then accused Vivek of turning down her repeated request to arrest her tormentors, which compelled her to commit suicide.

As the suicide case involving a local youth had snowballed into a major political controversy, the state police headquarters sent a special team led by an IG-rank officer, Shobha Ohatkar, to Sitamarhi to probe the role of the then SP and other police personnel.

The report submitted by Ohatkar, who is currently on central deputation, had indicted Vivek and advised the police headquarters to caution the officer in question as his role in the entire episode was "questionable".

Vivek was shifted to the Bihar Military Police's 16th battalion as its commandant for a brief period and later posted as SP of Siwan in March 2013.

His tenure as police chief of Siwan also came in for sharp criticism after he revoked the suspension order on three policemen who had been found guilty of duping a jeweller of gold worth several lakhs of rupees. A sting operation had indicted the policemen.

Vivek was made senior superintendent of police of Bhagalpur and subsequently transferred to Muzaffarpur in April 2016. Last year, Vivek faced the ire of senior police officials after the wife of a colleague alleged that her husband Sanjay Kumar Gaud had committed suicide by shooting himself in the police station as he was transferred for his failure to pay bribe to the SSP.

"It was because of his (Vivek's) connections in the police headquarters and also in Siwan where he had earlier served as SP that the cop's family members decided not to pursue the case. The police headquarters had sent a CID team from here to ascertain the truth. The CID report remained under the carpet," said a senior IPS officer.

The officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Vivek used to get plum postings despite adverse reports sent to the police headquarters and the home department. "He is considered close to a senior politician of the ruling alliance in the state," the officer added.