Gold bars, liquor stash recovered from Delhi IAS official

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recovered 31 gold bars weighing 3.2 kg and cash worth over Rs80 lakh from a bank locker of Sanjay Pratap Singh, a suspended senior Indian Administrative Services officer of the Delhi government who has been arrested on bribery charges.

Singh, an IAS officer of the 1984 batch posted as the principal secretary in the department for welfare of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities, and his personal assistant were detained on Tuesday night by the CBI for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs2.2 lakh from a manpower supplier.

The CBI also recovered documents of eight properties worth several crore rupees in the National Capital Region allegedly owned by Singh and his wife. Around 800 grams of silver were also recovered.

''Out of the eight properties, three are in Noida, two each in Greater Noida and Gurgaon and one at Safdarjung Enclave in south Delhi,'' a CBI source said.

In the searches, the CBI also found 300 bottles of high-end liquor brands like Blue Label and Glenmorangie and expensive watches like Rolex and Rado. The agency is considering a probe to verify if Singh owned assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, the source added.

The agency is also probing if the bribe sum was part of monthly payments made to the accused for clearing bills, rather than a one-time gratification. The complainant's firm was providing manpower in the form of security guards and peons to the department.

The agency had put the accused officer and his personal assistant under surveillance for some time after receiving a complaint.

The CBI move came just a few days after the Delhi assembly passed the Janlokpal Bill, described by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as the ''strongest'' anti-graft legislation in the country.

One of the major poll planks of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Kejriwal was a promise to clean up corruption at all levels of the government.

Another source said the complainant is an AAP volunteer who had first informed the government about the officer. He was later asked to seek the CBI's help.