J-K: ACB registers case against SICOP DGM, former MD over illegal appointment

During the course of verification, he said, it surfaced that Razdan, then MD of SICOP, by abusing his official position and in criminal conspiracy with others, allegedly engaged Choudhary as a technical assistant on a temporary basis for six months without any advertisement in the newspapers or inviting applications from the eligible candidates.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday registered a case against former managing director of the Jammu and Kashmir Small Scale Industrial Development Corporation (SICOP), R K Razdan, for allegedly making illegal appointment of Kunal Choudhary, who is currently serving as the DGM of the corporation, an official said. Choudhary, who was initially appointed as a technical assistant in 2006, was also named in the FIR registered under relevant sections of the law, including J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, the ACB said in a statement here. During the course of verification, he said, it surfaced that Razdan, then MD of SICOP, by abusing his official position and in criminal conspiracy with others, allegedly engaged Choudhary as a technical assistant on a temporary basis for six months without any advertisement in the newspapers or inviting applications from the eligible candidates. ''This temporary engagement was made on the basis of sole discretion as well as mere pick and choose manner by Razdan,'' the statement said, adding that the verification also revealed that after merely six months of temporary service, Choudhary was regularised without meeting any existing eligibility criteria and without any policy of government sanction of the regularisation. As such, the appointment of Choudhary was arbitrary and illegal, it said. It further said Choudhary was promoted to the post of manager without issuing any advertisement or without considering seniority of other eligible candidates. By acting in this manner, Razdan, by sheer abuse of his official position and under a well-knit criminal conspiracy with others as well as Choudhary, illegally appointed him to the post of technical assistant who has subsequently risen to the post of deputy general manager of the corporation arbitrarily as well as through manipulation, contrary to service rules, the ACB said.

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