The Rs 3.8 crore was recovered in cash on Wednesday after raids on several top bureaucrats of Rajasthan.
The modus-operandi, according to officials in Rajasthan's the anti-corruption police, was simple. The Rs 3.8 crore -- recovered in cash on Wednesday after raids on several top bureaucrats of Rajasthan -- was amassed through graft that poured in through a carefully built network.
According to the officials of the anti-corruption bureau -- who have been trying to crack the network for some time -- Ashok Singhvi, the principal secretary of the mines and petroleum department in Rajasthan, and his alleged middleman Sanjay Sethia, would identify profit making mines.
Next the officials would order their closure on some minor ground. The other officials roped in included additional mines director Pankaj Gehlot and senior mines engineer Pushkar Raj Ameta, the ACB official said.
Once the mines were closed, the mine owners started doing the rounds of the department and eventually, someone would point them in the direction of Mr Sethia, a businessman from Udaipur. The bribery negotiations were conducted by Mr Sethia or even Mr Singhvi himself to reopen the mines, the official added.
On Wednesday, during once such deal, the ACB managed to bust the racket.
Sher Khan, the owner of six china clay mines in Chittorgarh, had gone to hand over Rs 2.55 crore to Mr Sethia, when the anti-graft department raided his house. "It is one of the biggest seizures in Rajasthan," said Navdeep Singh, the chief of the anti-graft department.
"The ACB was keeping tabs on these people for two months now. It was when the money was being handed over that the ACB carried out the raid. They should be congratulated," said Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Katariya.
Today, Ashok Singhvi and five other accused were presented in a court in Udaipur. The police have been granted the men's custody for five days.