In a bizarre incident in Rajasthan, a corrupt government official burnt around Rs 20 lakh in cash in the kitchen after officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau arrived to raid his house. The incident happened at Pindwara in Pali in Rajasthan on Wednesday, when ACB officers had arrived at the residence of Tehsildar Kalpesh Jain to arrest him on corruption charges.
The ACB had launched a probe against Tehsildar Kalpesh Jain and Revenue Inspector Parbat Singh Rajput after several allegations were registered against them. ACB had caught Rajput red-handed taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh for tender, after which he had revealed that a total of Rs 5 lakh in bribe has been asked by the Tehsildar for award of the tender.
Following this, the ACB officials had arrived at the residence of Kalpesh Jain on Wednesday evening. But on seeing the officials, Jain shut his door, and started burning bundles of Rs 500 currency notes on the gas burner in the kitchen with the help of his wife. He told the waiting officials outside that he is making tea, but the officials saw through a window what was actually happening. The officials also video recorded the act of Jain through the window.
The ACB kept asking Jain to stop burning notes, but he wouldn’t stop. Left with no other choice, the officials broke the door with the help of local police officials, and stopped the destruction of bundles of the notes. The officials recovered several bundles of partially burnt notes, and according to them, almost Rs 20 lakh in case were destroyed by the Tehsildar Kamlesh Jain. The officials seized the partially burnt notes, along with the gas burner used to burn them.
During the raid at the house, ACB recovered around Rs 2.5 lakh in case, documents for several properties, documents of bank lockers, and more than 16 bank accounts in the name of Jain’s wife. Although bank statements from all the banks are yet to arrive, according to preliminary probe, at least Rs 20 lakhs are deposited in the accounts. It is suspected that the bank lockers contain cash and jewellery obtained through corruption. The ACB has frozen all the bank accounts.
Both Jain and Rajput have been arrested, and they were presented before a special court on Friday, and they were sent for ACB’s remand. The ACB is questioning them separately to find out the extent of the corruption. Along with the relevant charges of corruption by a government, charges for destroying Indian currency notes also have been registered against Kamlesh Jain.