Arvind and Tinoo Joshi

Bhopal, Sept. 7: A former IAS couple facing arrest in a disproportionate assets case that also threw up a liquor mystery have disappeared from their Bhopal home, giving the state Lokayukta’s police wing a red face.

Arvind and Tinoo Joshi (nee Ganguly), then principal secretaries with the Madhya Pradesh government, were raided by income-tax authorities in February 2010, suspended a month later and sacked on July 21 this year.

All through this, they lived in Bhopal, moving from their government quarters into their family home sometime last year. But after the Lokayukta police filed the chargesheet and got arrest warrants issued on August 28, they failed to find the couple.

Sources said Arvind’s father H.M. Joshi, a former inspector-general of police based in Bhopal, had friends in the ruling BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

When George Fernandes was defence minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Arvind had served as his principal secretary and officer on special duty. Tinoo had a stint in the PMOs of Rajiv Gandhi and V.P. Singh.

The income-tax raid allegedly threw up Rs 3 crore in cash, assets worth Rs 360 crore — and 49 bottles of Scotch. Arvind later claimed he was a collector of used liquor bottles, but the tax authorities’ report never specified whether the bottles were full or empty.

“Our teams have raided various locations in Bhopal and Bhind in Madhya Pradesh and in New Delhi, too, but we haven’t been able to arrest the absconding couple,” Lokayukta superintendent of police Virender Singh said today.

The deadline expires on Tuesday for the Joshis’ production in the Bhopal court hearing the Prevention of Corruption Act case. If the couple from the 1979 batch of the IAS fail to show up, the court can declare them proclaimed offenders.

The Joshis have relatives in America and Britain. Yesterday, the Lokayukta police asked the Airport Authority of India to have the couple detained if found at any airport.

A former air force man who left the armed forces because of injuries, Arvind was seen as “clean” and “efficient” by his peers. He fell in love with batch-mate Tinoo during their IAS training. Both hold MBA degrees from an Australian University.

Two sisters of Arvind —Abha Ghani and Vibha Patel, settled in America and Britain, respectively — have been named as accused in the assets case. The Joshis are charged with buying 402 acres of farmland in the names of Abha and Vibha in several places in Madhya Pradesh, such as Bhopal, Sehore, Raisen, Balaghat and Kanha.

The couple are wanted by the Enforcement Directorate for alleged money-laundering and foreign exchange violations.