In a major operation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday conducted raids on premises linked to a Gujarat cadre IAS officer of the 2011 batch Kankipati Rajesh with its sleuths striking simultaneously in Gandhinagar, Surendranagar, Surat and the officer’s home state Andhra Pradesh.
One Mohammed Rafiq Memon, who acted as the IAS officer’s middleman and who used to collect bribe money for him, has been arrested from Surat. Memon runs a private firm in Surat.
CBI sleuths searched the officer’s premises in connection with a corruption case that was lodged by the premier investigating agency’s Delhi unit, according to an official press release.
K Rajesh currently serves as the joint secretary in the General Administration Department of the Gujarat Government in Gandhinagar.
Among several allegations, the IAS officer is accused of giving arms licences to ineligible persons, allotment of government land and regularising encroached government land in lieu of huge bribes.
The CBI’s statement from Delhi said, “A preliminary inquiry was earlier registered on a request of the Gujarat Government in the matter. The instant case is the outcome of this.”
Searches at the premises of both the accused, K Rajesh, and Rafiq Memon, in Gandhinagar and Surat in Gujarat and Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, “which led to the recovery of several incriminating documentary and digital evidence,” the CBI added.
He has had a tainted tenure while being posted in Gujarat’s Saurashtra. Several complaints of corruption were filed against him. He was also transferred to the Home department after the anti-corruption bureau filed a complaint against him.
A retired Additional Chief Secretary-rank official is at present conducting a high-level inquiry against K Rajesh.
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