FIR against Tripura cadre IAS officer for felling trees during his stint as Gaya DM

By Express News Service

PATNA: A Tripura cadre IAS officer Abhishek Singh has landed in deep trouble for his alleged involvement in corrupt practices during his stint as district magistrate of Gaya in Bihar. Singh was on inter-state deputation in his home state Bihar for a period of five years.

An FIR was lodged against Singh at the special vigilance unit after a preliminary investigation revealed that he managed to fell a number of trees from the premises of the district magistrate’s official residence in Gaya for his personal use. He was also accused of issuing arms licenses to people throwing all prescribed norms to the wind. The issuance of arms licenses raised many eyebrows and complaints were made to the office of the chief minister Nitish Kumar.

“As prima facie, the allegations were found to be true against Singh, he was repatriated to his parent cadre Tripura and a formal inquiry ordered for his acts of omission and commissions,” a senior officer in the know of the matter said.

The officer who did not wish to be named said that the sub-ordinates of the then Gaya district magistrate confirmed the felling of trees without approval from the department concerned. They remained tight-lipped over the incident for a long due to political clout of Singh.

Sources said that a video of the trees that were felled at the then DM’s behest was submitted to the chief minister’s office. Singh’s owned a palatial building at Police Colony near Anisabad in Patna. It is suspected that the wood was used in the newly built house.

Singh’s clout could be gauged from the fact that his tenure of the interstate deputation was extended for six months in October last year. In addition, the state government has initiated departmental proceedings against two senior IPS officers—Amit Lodha and Aditya Kumar—both of Bihar cadre– fortheir alleged connections with illegal sand mining mafias.

While Lodha was posted as IG, Magadh range, Kumar was posted as SSP of Gaya. The transfer of a police inspector posted as a station house officer at a police station in Gaya was the reason behind the two IPS officers’ fight.

The disciplinary action against the bureaucrats has evoked sharp reactions from different political parties. While the ruling NDA defended the action and said that the government was sticking to maintaining zero tolerance for corruption, the opposition parties assailed the government for its failure to check corruptpractices.