Arrest warrants against IAS officer, two others

JODHPUR: The ACB court here on Monday issued arrest warrants against suspended IAS officer Nirmala Meena and two other accused, authorized contractor Suresh Upadhyay and department clerk Ashok Paliwal. Meena, the then DSO of Jodhpur, is an accused of siphoning off about 35,000 quintal of wheat costing about Rs 8 crore, which she sold to the flour mills in open market instead of allotting the same to ration dealers.
While the hearings of the anticipatory bail prayer from the suspended absconding IAS officer Meena are on in the court, ACB continues to run from pillar to post in search to arrest her for her alleged involvement in embezzlement of Rs 8 crore. "Raids have been conducted at different addresses of the three accused in Jaipur and Udaipur in past three days but they remain untraceable," said SP (ACB) Ajaypal Lamba.

According to Lamba, this quantity of wheat had been claimed by DSO Meena by generating a false demand by showing an addition of 33,000 beneficiary families. For this, she provided commissions to ration dealers, who have admitted the same in court during recording of their statements. "Apart from Meena, there are three accused in the case including a flour mill owner Swaroop Singh, contractor of DSO Suresh Upadhyay and clerk of DSO Ashok Paliwal. We have arrested Swaroop Singh. Teams are searching for other three," Lamba said.