Patna: After a lapse of about a week, the state government on Wednesday suspended arrested IAS official (2013 batch) and Mohania SDO Dr Jitendra Gupta on corruption charges under All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, with effect from July 12.
Gupta is under judicial custody since July 13 night. During his suspension period, he will get sustenance allowance as per the service rules. The general administration department (GAD) on Wednesday issued a notification to this effect.
Gupta was arrested by the vigilance bureau on July 12 on the charge of accepting bribe from truck drivers to release their vehicles. The vigilance bureau registered a case (67/2016) under the Anti-Corruption Act, said the additional secretary, GAD, Daya Nidhan Pandey, in its notification.
The services of any officer who is detained for more than 48 hours stand automatically suspended, said an official.
The suspension is seen as a setback for the IAS Officers Association, Bihar chapter, which had termed Gupta’s arrest as “improper”. “The association had strongly condemned the hurried action taken against a serving officer, throwing all established provisions of propriety and law to the winds,” said a member of the association. A meeting of the association had decided to submit a memorandum to the CM, governor and others concerned in this connection.
On July 4, Gupta had reportedly stopped four ‘overloaded’ trucks laden with iron bars on way to Rajasthan from Jamshedpur. He had allegedly sought a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh for their release, but later scaled down his demand to Rs 80,000. By then, the drivers had informed the state vigilance bureau and a trap had been laid.
“As soon as a truck driver handed over Rs 80,000 to the officer’s driver, a vigilance bureau arrested him and then raided Gupta’s house and recovered papers of the seized trucks,” said a vigilance bureau official.
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