KOTA: The Rajasthan Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday booked senior IAS officer Inder Singh Rao in a bribery case along with his personal assistant, officials said.
The Rajasthan government had on Wednesday removed Baran district collector Inder Singh Rao after his personal assistant (PA) was arrested by the ACB for taking a bribe of Rs 1.40 lakh, officials said.
His PA, Mahaveer Naagar, was arrested on Wednesday while taking the bribe in lieu of issuing a no objection certificate (NOC) for a petrol pump.
The ACB, Kota team interrogated the former collector for 6-7 hours till Thursday morning.
He was allowed to go at around 4 am, Additional Superintendent of Police, ACB, Kota, Chandrasheel Thakur said.
Rao's name was added in the FIR on Friday, the ASP added.
The department of personnel in Jaipur had issued an order to put Rao under the APO (awaiting posting orders) status till further orders.
However, no reason for the action was mentioned in the order.
According to the service record of the 1989 batch IAS officer, this is the sixth time in his career that he has been put under the APO status.
The ACB officials also said on Thursday that the team recovered incriminating documents from the residence of Naagar.
"We found documents related to seven land plots in Baran under the names of his relatives, details of eight bank accounts, bank locker and papers of huge agriculture land and property which is yet to be examined, as well vehicles like tractors, car, two-wheelers among others," they said.
Naagar, in the initial interrogation, had claimed to have accepted the bribe on behalf of the collector.
He said that the collector's share was Rs 1 lakh and he took Rs 40,000 for himself, the ACB said.
On Friday, an ACB court directed officials to send Naagar to judicial custody till December 24.