Trouble intensifies for IAS Neeraj K Pawan and IPS Manish Agrawal as the central government gives prosecution sanction against them. Now the state government can prosecute them in the pending corruption cases.
Niraj K Pawan, a 2003 batch IAS officer, is currently working as divisional commissioner Banswara while Manish Agrawal, a 2010 batch IPS, has been suspended since he was booked by Anti Corruption Bureau in a bribery case in February 2021.
However, Rajasthan government is yet to give prosecution sanction for Dausa SDM Pushkar Mittal and Bandikui SDM Pinky Meena, who were booked along with IPS Manish Agrawal in the same case.
What is the case of Niraj K Pawan?
The case is related to irregularities in the recruitment of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social worker, psychiatric nurse, monitoring and evaluation officer, case history assistant and community nurse. There was a special recruitment drive of hiring these health professionals in six districts under national mental health programme in 2014-15. There have been allegations that Niraj K Pawan, who was then additional mission director of national health mission facilitated selection of relatives and non deserving candidates fraudulently. In this case ACB had made five arrests including three former offices of health department. In the investigation, it was found that 56 people were given jobs, out of which 25 people were hired either on the basis of fraud documents or had not fallen in the eligibility criteria. The prosecution request was pending with central government since 2017.
In the year 2016 itself, In 2016, Niraj K Pawan was arrested by the ACB in connection with a bribery scam worth crores in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Pawan was allegedly a part of the racket run by a middleman called Ajit Soni who used to get tenders awarded in the Information and Education Department of the Health Ministry in lieu of huge bribes.
These bribes would then be proportionately shared by officers in the department. The scam took place when Pawan was posted as the Additional Mission Director in the state's national health mission. Pawan had to spend several months in jail in this case.
Pawan, later as the chairman of Rajasthan Skill and Livelihood Development Corporation (RSLDC) was allegedly involved in corruption demanding money for clearing bill of Rs 1.5 crore. The IAS officer since then has been out of mainstream.
The case of Manish Agrawal
Manish Agrawal was then superintendent of Police in Dausa. He is accused of demanding extortion money from a construction company involved in construction Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. In the same case two RAS officers – Bandikui SDM Pinki Meena accused of demanding Rs 10 lakh and Dausa SDM Pushkar Mittal accused of demanding Rs 5 lakh – were also held. Later Manish Agrawal was also accused of demanding bribe from a police inspector for allowing him to stay incharge of police station and an Income tax official for saving him in a rape case.
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