Bribery case: CBI files charge sheet against Gujarat IAS officer, his accomplice

The said amount was the part of bribe amount, which was demanded by the public servant Rajesh, the CBI said in the statement.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a charge sheet here against Gujarat-cadre IAS officer K Rajesh for alleged bribery in issuing arms licenses to ineligible people, allotment of government land to disentitled beneficiaries, and other graft charges.

The agency has also named in the charge sheet Mohammad Rafiq Memon, owner of a private firm who was an alleged accomplice of Rajesh, a former collector of Surendranagar district in Gujarat.

The document was filed before the court of special CBI judge V V Parmar in Ahmedabad, the central agency said in a statement.

''It was found during investigation that the alleged bribe money of Rs. 98,000 was deposited in the account of the Proprietor (Memon) on the directions of a said public servant. The said amount was the part of bribe amount, which was demanded by the public servant (Rajesh),'' the CBI said in the statement. Officials said Memon had prepared four fake invoices in the name of a private person claiming to have sold dress material, whereas the said four invoices were in the name of another person and ''SIR''.

The invoices submitted by Memon to the CBI were allegedly forged on his computer to shield the bureaucrat, they said.

''Investigation has also revealed that both the accused entered into a conspiracy wherein part of the alleged bribe demanded by the public servant was paid by another person into the account of Proprietor of the said firm on the directions of a public servant,'' the statement said.

Memon, who had allegedly worked as a middleman for the accused officer to collect the bribe money, and Rajesh are currently in jail following their arrest by the central agency.

While Surat-based Memon was held in May, Rajesh was arrested last week. Judge Parmar had sent Rajesh, a 2011-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, to 14-day judicial custody after his four-day CBI remand ended on July 18.

The CBI had registered an ''instant case'' against the duo following a preliminary inquiry, which was initiated ''on a request of the Gujarat government'', the statement said.

The IAS officer, who was posted as a joint secretary in the general administration department in Gandhinagar at the time of his arrest, has been accused of taking bribes for land deals and sanctioning weapon licenses to ineligible people during his posting as the collector of Surendranagar district.

As per the charge sheet, Rajesh took bribes ''to the grant of arms licenses, for allotment of government land to ineligible beneficiaries and for the regularization of encroached Government land''.

After lodging the case, the agency had conducted searches at the premises of the accused in Gandhinagar and Surat in Gujarat and at Rajesh's native place in Andhra Pradesh, which led to the recovery of incriminating documentary and digital evidence, it had said.