CBI arrests Gujarat cadre IAS official in corruption case

The Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) detained Kankipati Rajesh, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer in connection with a corruption case.

The agency charged the IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre of the 2011 batch with receiving unlawful gratification in connection with the issuance of arm licences, the allocation of public land, and the regularisation of encroached public land in the names of non-eligible beneficiaries.

“The accused officer was called to the agency’s Ahmedabad office in Gujarat for questioning. He was detained on Wednesday night due to his lack of cooperation with the probe”, according to a CBI source.

On a referral from the State government, the CBI opened a preliminary investigation in December 2021 into the allegations of serious wrongdoing against Mr. Rajesh and others.

It filed the lawsuit in May, stating that Mr. Rajesh, who served as the Collector of Surendranagar in Gujarat, coerced a number of people to make “donations” to the “Sujlam Suflam Jal Abhiyan” into the collector’s official account in exchange for the promise of granting weapons licences. It was a water saving initiative by the State government.

The officer allegedly illegally leased out restricted forest property for solar power generation without the forest department’s consent while working with others, according to the FIR.

The CBI further claimed that Mr. Rajesh had paid around 47.31 lakh for two shops in a Surat business complex, which was significantly less than the going rate at the time. The two enterprises that had rented out the stores never operated their operations from those locations, according to the FIR, but they each put 5.50 lakh rupees into Mr. Rajesh’s account.