The Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau Wednesday booked Niraj Kumar Pawan, the IAS officer and four others for acceptance of bribes to manoeuvre work orders under the National Rural Health Mission.
Acting on a complaint the Anti corruption bureau received in December 2015, the ACB raided the house and offices of the IAS officer and along with him of two other officials and a middle man who was also involved in the case recently.
Niraj Kumar Pawan who is currently the Commissioner of the Agriculture department has alegations against him of allegedly receiving bribes worth crores of rupees when he was the Director at NRHM-IEC through a middleman Ajit Soni. Along with him, two other officials, Additional Director Anil Agarwal and Chief Accounts Officer Deepa Gupta and department store keeper Josy Varghese were also purportedly part of this racket which continued for more than 7months before a complaint was launched against them.
An ACB officer said, “Pawan continued to be involved in this racket even after he was transferred”. He added, “Soni had virtually become the ‘single-window clearance’ for all work orders under NRHM. If any firm did not pay commission, Soni would use his influence among higher officials to stop payments.”
