IAS couple with Rs.3 crore unaccounted cash suspended (Second Lead)

BHOPAL - The Madhya Pradesh government Friday suspended the IAS couple from whose house Income Tax (IT) sleuths allegedly found Rs.3 crore unaccounted cash during a raid. An engineer whose house was raided has also been suspended.

Raids were conducted, among others, on the residence of women and child development principal secretary Tinu Joshi and her husband Arvind Joshi, principal secretary of the Jail and Parliamentary Affairs department.

“Over Rs.3 crore in cash has so far been recovered from the house of the IAS couple. Besides, details of bank deposits worth Rs.2.25 crore have also been seized,’ Director General of Investigations (I-T) for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Brajesh Gupta, said.

‘Bank notes were recovered in a suitcase during raids that started Thursday. The action was taken on the basis of documents of heavy investments made in an insurance company by these officials, found during a similar exercise in 2009,’ Gupta said.

As per orders issued by the state government, Abha Asthana, additional chief secretary, Religious Trust, Culture, has been given additional charge of Jails and Parliamentary Affairs Department - the charge so far held by suspended IAS officer Arvind Joshi, while his wife Tinu Joshi’s charge of Women and Child Development Department has been given to Lavleen Kakad, Principal Secretary, Social Justice.

The government had earlier in the day sought the IT department’s report on raids that were conducted at the houses of government officials and businessmen for the second day Friday.

It was a prelude to initiate action against the officials concerned. The Income Tax department raids since Thursday at 13 places here have yielded huge cash, including more than Rs.3 crore (Rs.30 million) from one house, foreign currency worth over Rs.25 lakh and documents related to investments and properties.

“We asked for a detailed report from the Income Tax department and action will be taken against the corrupt officials after that,” Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told reporters.

According to sources, the Joshi couple is said to be involved in foreign transactions worth crores of rupees. The couple had also floated a company with a local businessman, in their son’s name.

There were also simultaneous raids at the houses of retired Bhopal Municipal Corporation commissioner M.A. Khan and a senior Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer in Raipur, from where details about bank accounts worth Rs.30 crore were found.

The residences of road and bridge development engineer R.D. Chaudhary, superintending engineer in Power Works Department Deepak Asai, his wife Jyoti Asai, and businessmen Sunil Agrawal and Pawan Agrawal dealing in fertilisers besides ICICI Bank manager Seema Jaiswal and bank agent Bharti Bhasne were also raided.

The Income Tax department is collecting details of accounts of persons concerned and their lockers were being searched. Documents relating to investment have been seized.

The raids were conducted after information that benami (proxy) investments worth crores of rupees have been made in various financial institutions.