IAS officer, nine others chargesheeted in land bribery case
JAIPUR: The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against former member of the Revenue Board and IAS officer Ravishankar Srivastava, proprietor of Data Infosys Ajay Data and nine others in connection with a corruption case. The chargesheet was filed in the special court of ACB under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to IG (ACB) Umesh Mishra, the case is related to an expensive piece of land in Dholpur over 28 bigahs. One Prem Mohan Bhargav had acquired the plot in 1952 on rent from the state government for two years through an auction. Under the Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955, the title of the land could not be transferred to Bhargav, but he managed to win the ownership by allegedly bribing officials of the revenue department. In 2004, Ravishankar Srivastava ordered Bhargav to hand over the title of the land to the state government. Meanwhile, some others, including Suresh Bansal, Sunil Bansal, Umesh Sharma and Ramniwas Lavania bought the land for Rs 40 lakh from the Bhargavs and allegedly bribed IAS officer Srivastava to take back his orders. The officer allegedly agreed to retrieve his orders for a bribe of Rs 30 lakh. Ajay Data has been named in the chargesheet for his alleged role as a mediator. The ACB, after lodging an FIR, had arrested the accused, but they are out on bail.