Graft lid blown: 19 trucks, 28 trips to Europe

NEW DELHI: A Class IV coalfield employee who owns 19 trucks and 30 acres of farmland, a former D-G of the Met department who’s made 28 trips abroad in the last nine years (including 15 to Switzerland), a railway divisional manager who owns a gym and a flat in Mumbai — no wonder even the most hardened of CBI sleuths conducting nationwide raids earlier this week stopped in their tracks, dumbstruck.
Ajaz Siddiqui is a Class IV employee of Western Coalfields Limited. Siddiqui, who helps load dumpers and trucks at the WCL yards in Nagpur, owns 19 trucks and lives in a sprawling 4,000-square-feet house.
During the raid, CBI sleuths dug deeper and found 19 sale deeds for nearly 30 acres of farmland, Rs 75 lakh in cash, jewellery worth Rs 10 lakh, nine two-wheelers, one Indica, 20 bank accounts with Rs 3 lakh credit, and fixed deposits amounting to Rs 1.10 lakh.
"The transport company was in the name of one of his four brothers who had filed tax returns showing his income to be Rs 80,000," said a CBI source.
"His main operation seems to be coal pilferage," he added.
In another raid in New Delhi, sleuths were even more startled when they found the passport of former director-general of Indian Meterological Department (IMD) S K Srivastav. "He went on at least 15 trips to Switzerland after 1995," exclaimed a senior officer.