 |
| K Senthil Kumar |
Patna, June 30: Senior IAS officer K. Senthil Kumar was put under suspension today on the charge of corruption. The state government took almost a year to take punitive action against him.
A case under Prevention of Corruption Act was lodged against Kumar by the vigilance investigation bureau in July last year. He was posted as the commissioner of the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) then.
Kumar is the second IAS officer of Bihar to be suspended on corruption charges in recent times. Earlier, S.S. Verma, the former secretary of the minor irrigation department, was put under suspension after the special vigilance unit lodged a disproportionate assets case against him.
An official notification issued by the general administration department (GAD) today said Kumar, a 1996-batch IAS officer, has been suspended following an FIR lodged against him by the vigilance investigation bureau in Patna on July 21, 2010. The FIR was lodged against Kumar under sections 467 (forgery of variable security, will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of IPC and under sections 7, 8, 13(2) read with section 13 (1)(C)(D) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The notification issued by deputy secretary Atul Kumar Sinha said Kumar would have to report to the GAD during the period of his suspension.
Kumar, who was on central deputation and posted with the statistical department, was recently repatriated to his parent cadre. He was waiting for posting after his return from central deputation.
The IAS officer in question has been charged with committing financial irregularities amounting to Rs 7.46 crore when he was posted as PMC commissioner in 2009-10. In February 2010, a vigilance team headed by P.N. Mishra (then posted as deputy superintendent of police) had conducted a raid on the PMC office and seized documents. Kumar, who was present in the office, sneaked out through a backdoor.
