The officer who was investigating the bribery case of Dudu Collector Hanuman Mal Dhaka has been pulled out of the investigation and put on awaiting posting order (APO). ADG of Anti Corruption Bureau ( ACB) Hemant Priyadarshy said that the investigating officer Surendra Singh, who is of additional superintendent of police (ASP) rank, has been removed from the investigation.
The accused collector Hanuman Mal Dhaka has already been put on APO on charges of demanding ₹25 lakh for not taking action in a land conversion case.
“Surendra Singh has been put on APO. A new investigating officer (IO) will soon take over the case,” he said while refusing to divulge the reason behind Surendra Singh's removal.
Surendra Singh punished in single patta case
While there has been evidence of negligence in Dudu bribery case, Surendra Singh has been penalised for producing government's reply in the single patta case which has exonerated former UDH minister Shanti Dhariwal and others in the single patta case. The AAG Shiv Mangal Singh who is dealing with the case said that he was not aware of the reply and Surendra Singh submitted it without his (Shiv Mangal Singh) knowledge. The state government took stern action and put Surendra Singh on APO. In the single patta case which dates back to 2014, ACB had arrested the then UDH secretary G S Sandhu, RAS officers Nishkam Diwakar and Onkar Saini and Shailendra Garg. The previous Congress government had produced closure report giving clean chit to all the officers. However, a SLP filed by activist Ashok Pathak is pending with the Supreme Court.
Apart from that, Surendra Singh was also under scrutiny as information of raid was allegedly leaked and the ACB failed to trap the collector red handed in Dudu bribery case.
“It's very well mentioned in the FIR that had information not got leaked, the ACB could have arrested Dudu collector red handed,” said a senior ACB officer.
The ACB is trying to investigate as to who had leaked the information of trap, which alerted Dudu collector Hanuman Mal Dhaka, and he took recourse to avoid the arrest.
Why ACB could not arrest Dhaka red handed?
According to sources, the complainant showed his inability to arrange the bribery amount of ₹7.5 lakh which was to be given to Dhaka at his residence. The ACB then dropped the idea of trapping collector red handed.
According to senior officers in ACB, the trap could not be possible due to lack of interest of officers dealing with the case.
“ACB has a ready fund of ₹one crore which is used to trap corrupt officials red handed. Apart from that, ACB also has dummy currency notes which could have been used to trap the collector. However ACB refrained from using it and the case has now become little weak,” said a senior official.
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