This Article is From Feb 05, 2010

IAS couple's home raided, Rs 3 crore recovered

Bhopal: Income Tax made a surprise raid against top bureaucrats in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, crores tumble out.

Four crore in cash. Deposits of Rs 40 crore in banks. Jewellery worth Rs 1.5 crore. Other investments worth Rs 3 crore. This is the sort of wealth accumulated by top bureaucrats in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Cash Deposits:
40 crore
Cash: Rs. 4 crore
Jewellery: Rs. 1.5 crore approximately
Foreign Exchange: Rs. 7 Lakh approximately
Investments: Rs. 3 crore
Assets: Still under Scrutiny
Approximate Figures

The income tax raids that revealed this were conducted against three serving IAS officers, two of them of the Principal Secretary Rank.

Discovered in the home of Chhattisgarh Agriculture Secretary BL Agarwal: 52 lakhs in cash and jewellery worth 72 lakh.
  • BL Agarwal, Agriculture Secretary, Chhattisgarh
  • Cash: Rs. 52 lakh
  • Jewellery: Rs. 72 lakh
The bigger find is this: 220 benami passbooks in the name of his house helps, passbooks that reflect deposits worth 40 crore rupees. Also papers of several bogus companies that he used as hawala channels.
  • BL Agarwal, Agriculture Secretary, Chhattisgarh
  • 220 benami pass books: Rs. 40 crore 
  • Papers of bogus companies
Much more cash was found at the house of Principal Secretary Arvind Joshi, and his wife Tinoo in Madhya Pradesh, also of the same rank. Stuffed into bathrooms, the kitchen and under their beds, three crore and foreign exchange worth an additional 7 lakhs.

Arvind Joshi, Principal Secretary, Jail and Parliamentary Affairs, MP
Tinoo Joshi, Principal Secretary, Women and Child Development, MP
  • Cash: Rs. 3 crore
  • Foreign Exchange: Rs. 7 lakh
  • Jewellery: Rs. 66 lakh
  • Investments: Rs. 3 crore
  • Assets: Still under Scrutiny 
  • 5 bank lockers sealed
Both husband and wife have a tainted career record. Arvind Joshi was removed from the Water Resources Management department recently for alleged financial irregularities.

Tinoo Joshi took over the department of Women and Child Development in Madhya Pradesh in 2008 and made purchases worth rupees 100 crore for the department. In the first year of her tenure, 200 children died of malnutrition across Madhya Pradesh.

The rest of the raid money were recovered from engineers, businessmen and insurance agents who worked for them.

"The investments made by this group of people are being examined," said Brijesh Gupta, Director General, Income Tax, Madhya Pradesh.

Even as we cover this raid, three top IAS officers of the Madhya Pradesh cadre are being investigated for big cases of corruption by the Lokayukt.

Name: Dr. Rajesh Rajora:
Designation: Member, Revenue Board
Charges: Multi-crore medicines purchase scam

Name: Ajita Bajpayee Pandey:
Designation: Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Mining                             
Charges: Multi-crore coal purchase scam

Name: J N Kansotiya:
Designation: Commissioner, Honshangabad Division                                
Charges: Gave clean chit to corrupt sarpanchs

Looks like Madhya Pradesh' roll call of corruption may just get longer.
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