NEW DELHI: Lieutenant Governor Vinai Saxena has recommended action against a 2007-batch IAS officer Udit Prakash Rai for “misconduct” and allegedly accepting Rs 50 lakh bribe to grant “undue favours” to an executive engineer in two corruption cases, officials said on Wednesday.
Rai, an AGMUT-cadre officer is currently posted as special secretary in the government’s health and family welfare department. Previously, he worked as the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) CEO. According to the officials, Rai, during his tenure as the vice-chairman of Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board (DAMB), “virtually let off” executive engineer P S Meena in two disproportionate asset cases — one of which involved Meena’s son while the other involved his wife.
“The Lt Guv has made this recommendation to the Ministry of Home Affairs on the basis of substantiated recommendation made by the CBI in a matter where Rai allegedly took a bribe of `50 lakh for extending undue favours to an executive engineer, P S Meena, in DAMB, by diluting punishment against him in two cases of corruption,” an official said.
The complaint was lodged in February. In the first case, the inquiry report submitted by a retired IAS officer recommended a “major penalty/dismissal from service” against Meena, as per the CVC guidelines.
Sources said that Saxena noted that Rai issued the “censure” in “unreasonable haste” on the last day of his posting as VC, DAMB, even as his transfer orders to DSFMC had been issued on February 24, 2021.
Also, in the second case of a disproportionate asset involving Meena’s wife, an inquiry was ordered by the earlier VC of DAMB, but Rai, without conducting any inquiry, ordered “punishment of censure” against Meena clubbing it with the first case and noted that the “two cases were similar”. “Prakash did not even issue a formal order in this case separately,” the official said.
The CBI also recorded these “deliberate lapses” by Rai in a letter written to the then chief secretary Vijay Dev on September 15, 2021. The Lt Guv has also authorized the chief secretary to set aside the “punishment of censure” in these cases against Meena and ensure appropriate punishment.