Haryana’s home secretary shifted after CBI graft case
By IANSThursday, October 7, 2010
CHANDIGARH - Haryana Home Secretary Krishna Mohan has been removed from his post, officials said Thursday, two days after he and two others were booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a graft case.
Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary Samir Mathur will be the new home secretary of the state, a state government spokesperson said here Thursday. He was earlier heading the transport department.
Krishna Mohan was Wednesday night shifted to the forests department. Keshni Anand Arora will be the new transport secretary.
The CBI Tuesday booked the home secretary and two other senior bureaucrats — former adviser to the Chandigarh administrator (chief secretary rank) Lalit Sharma and Haryana cadre civil servant Vivek Atray — for their role in the allotment of a multimillion rupee amusement-cum-theme park project to Unitech Builders in Chandigarh.
Officials of the leading private builder have also been booked by the CBI.
All of them have been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and for violation of norms, procedural irregularities and misuse of official position.
The CBI was investigating the matter for nearly five months and a criminal case has been registered against the three officers, who were serving with the Chandigarh administration when the controversial allotment took place in 2007-08.
Krishna Mohan was home secretary in the Chandigarh administration. Atray was the director-tourism and is presently on leave from the Haryana government and working with a multinational company here. Sharma, a senior IAS officer who has now retired, was the seniormost bureaucrat in the Chandigarh administration.
CBI sources said further investigation would take place before any more action against the officers.
The investigating agency has, however, let off former Chandigarh finance secretary and serving senior Punjab-cadre IAS officer S.K. Sandhu in the case.
The Chandigarh administration had scrapped the allotment of the project in May this year after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) recommended investigation of the case to the CBI.
The CBI is still investigating allotment of two other mega-projects — the Film City project and PrideAsia housing project — allotted during the same time.
