Almost the same day another report appeared disclosing that Economic Offences Wing of the state police has registered a complaint to investigate a senior IAS officer- once considered close to former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan – for allegedly influencing a Rs. 300 crore Smart City project to set up cloud based common integrated data and disaster recovery centre in seven cities of MP.

Officials say there is evidence that points at the IAS officer’s involvement in the tendering process, besides allegations that his ‘teenaged son’ was given a senior position in a global consultancy MNC, which was consultant for the bid. The bureaucrat has since moved to the Centre. This is the same Smart city project that had led to conflict between BSNL and US-based giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) with the state-owned telecom company seeking revaluation of the technical bid. BSNL had alleged a conflict of interest in the bidding process, pointing out that the global consultancy firm was also HPE’s partner in developing the Smart City app. Despite BSNL’s objections, HPE was given a considerable score in technical evaluation, said an officer with the probe agency. Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (BSDCL) had invited tenders for cloud-based common integrated data and disaster recovery centres, and integrated command and control centres (ICCC) for smart cities.

Perhaps it was for the first time that a Police complaint was filed against such a high IAS official. Agarwal was regarded as the architect of the smart city project of Bhopal.

Filing of complaint and then giving publicity to it caused angry reaction among the IAS officers. Their reaction was common and forced the President of IAS officers association to write a protest letter to the Chief Secretary protesting publicity. Writing a letter and releasing it to the media is an unprecedented development.

Association president Gauri Singh wrote to the chief secretary seeking an “advisory” to investigation agencies, “I write this letter to bring to your notice the recent trend of seeking publicity by officers holding responsible positions in investigating agencies wherein even before conducting proper inquiry into the merits of the case, details of the case/complaint and likely conclusions are shared with the press. This is naturally quite demoralising for government servants and adversely affects decision making,” she wrote.

EOW chief Sushovan Benerjee refused to comment on the IAS Association’s stand saying, “The matter is under investigation”. Some other IPS officers were of the opinion that the state government cannot issue an advisory that may hamper probe. “The IAS Association should also inquire the contents of the complaint at their own level. A simple search on internet would show that the company, which assisted the government in preparing terms for the smart city project, and the company that bagged it are working as partners at various levels. Moreover, these companies have mentioned their partnership deals on their portals. When a conflict of interest issue was raised, the project should have been trashed instead of going ahead with it,” said an officer privy to investigations.

Everyone who overlooked these ‘linkages’ should be held accountable, no matter who he or she is, he pointed out. Gauri Singh wrote that the recent case is related to a senior officer and his tenure in the urban administration department. “I understand that the same matter had surfaced earlier and the present principal secretary had submitted a report on the issue wherein he said that proper and transparent processes were followed. It is therefore surprising that the officer heading EOW decides to brief the press, without even seeking facts and details from the department.” She added.

Whatever may be the implications but it shows that even the top IAS officers are found involved in corrupt practices. Another aspect of this controversy is that it has created a situation of confrontation between two prestigious All India services.

Meanwhile details of the results of the raids on the house and offices of Alok Khare indicate that he is more than “Arabpati”. The most shocking revelation is that he owns a dog worth more than Rs. 10 lakh and several gold spoons.

Raids began at Indore, Bhopal, Raisen and Chhatarpur in early morning hours and continued till late evening. Officials were struggling to prepare detailed report of the raid till reports last came in.

The raids led to detection of more than 100-acre land in Chhatarpur, around 2 kg gold more than 10 kg of silver jewellery, eight prime plots and two grand bungalows in posh Golden City were found in Khare’s ownership in Bhopal. Besides, registry papers of various plots, houses, luxury vehicles and many more too were seized during the raid.

Khare was recruited through State Public Service Commission in 1998. In last 20 years he has amassed property worth hundreds of crores. SP Lokayukta Bhopal said that Rs. 9.19 lakh cash, gold ornaments worth Rs. 52 lakhs, silver ornaments worth Rs. 3 lakh and a bank locker’s key were found in Bhopal. (IPA Service)