THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government on May 9 transferred or reassigned duties of several IPS officers. Among them was Yogesh Gupta, the director of the vigilance and anti-corruption bureau (VACB), who was shifted to the fire and rescue services department.
Gupta’s transfer came when the bureau was in the middle of something. It had recommended dismissal of a forest official caught taking bribery. Not just that. Sources said the bureau wanted FIRs registered against former Kannur district panchayat president P P Divya for allegedly helping a benami firm get government contracts.
The VACB had even sought government nod to probe the corruption plaguing a few public sector companies and alerted authorities about financial discrepancies in government departments, including mining and geology. In the middle of these developments, which could have given the state government a few headaches, the VACB head was transferred, sources in the VACB told TNIE.
The sources said since his posting as their director, Gupta had personally trained officers – SP and above – on how to handle financial crimes, including those in cooperative banks. During his nine-month tenure, Gupta led two prolonged training sessions and around eight brief sessions for the officers, mostly on how to map money trail, scrutinising balance sheets, evidence collection and other aspects.
“He was very particular that every allegation we made was backed with evidence. He put the experience he gained while working in the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI to good use and imparted the knowledge to officers,” said a source.
Gupta, a trained and certified chartered and cost and management accountant , had headed the CBI team that probed sensational cases including the Harshad Mehta security fraud and Ketan Parekh stock market scam.
VACB sources said Gupta’s efforts yielded results as sleuths managed to detect irregularities in more than three government enterprises. “Under him, the VACB transformed from a unit carrying out trap operations and occasional special drives to a more robust wing that began learning how to handle financial crimes. Given the sort of complaints increasingly coming up in the cooperative sector, the work he did was meaningful,” said a source.
Currently, he is among the officers in the government’s list of probables for the next state police chief. Gupta is the third senior-most officer – after Nitin Agrawal and Ravada Chandrasekhar – in the list and could be included in the UPSC’s shortlist given his track record and seniority. However, it remains to be seen whether the recent developments would have a bearing on his chances for the top post as the state government has the final say in picking its candidate from the three-member shortlist returned by the UPSC.