Two senior IPS officers booked

RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh police on Friday booked two senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers — Mukesh Gupta and Rajnesh Singh — on charges of illegal phone tapping and destroying of evidence during their probe into the alleged public distribution system (PDS) scam, a police officer said.

While Gupta is posted as special director general of police at the police headquarters, Singh is the superintendent of police, Naryanpur.

The alleged irregularities in the PDS took place during the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Raman Singh and the investigation of the case was handed over to the anti-corruption branch (ACB) of the Chhattisgarh police headed by Gupta.

“While i nvestigating t he PDS scam, the accused IPS officers tapped certain phone numbers without getting requisite permission. A back-dated per- mission was later taken,” said Kalyan Elesela, an officer who is part of the special investigating team (SIT) probing the role of senior government functionaries in distributing poor quality rice to people under PDS. Elesela said that there were about a dozen phone numbers that were tapped without any approval from the competent authorities.

“I am denying all these charges & categorically stating that I have done nothing illegal,” Gupta said responding to the claims. Singh did not respond to phone calls.